MP: 3 more accused arrested in assault of army officers, rape of woman
Bhopal: Three more accused in the September 11 incident in Mhow in Indore district in Madhya Pradesh in which two army officers were assaulted and one of their women friends raped by the assailants, were on Friday arrested, police said.
The three accused, identified as Rohit Singh Girwal (23), Sandeep Singh Baria (18) and Sachin Makwana (25), were arrested from their hideout in Manpur jungle in Jam Gate area in Mhow, Indore inspector general of police Nimish Agrawal said.
With this, all the six accused in the incident were arrested, Indore (rural) superintendent of police Hitika Vasal told this newspaper.
Earlier, a few hours after the incident on Wednesday, two accused, Anil Baror (27), and Pawan Bansunia (23), were arrested.
The third accused, Ritesh Vavar (25) was arrested on Thursday.
The SP informed that the alleged rape survivor was yet to record her statement.
“She is still in shock. Her statement will be recorded when she recovers”, the SP said.
According to the IG, preliminary investigation has suggested that two of the six accused, Anil and Ritesh, were the mastermind of the crime and the remaining four accused were their accomplices.
The accused involved in the alleged rape of the woman have confessed to the crime, he said.
According to the FIR filed in the case, two army officers along with their two female friends had gone to the army’s firing range near Jam Gate, a picturesque hilly area, in Mhow at around 11 pm on Tuesday.
They came out of their vehicle and were sitting at an isolated place when “seven to eight” assailants appeared at the spot at around 2.30 am on Wednesday and attacked them with sticks and rods.
One of them had carried a pistol.
The assailants had held hostage one of the two army officers and one of the two women friends accompanying them, and threatened to kill them if a ransom of Rs ten lakh was not paid.
The army officer, let off by the assailants to get the ransom money to secure release of the two hostages, held by the latter, had informed this to his higher authority who alerted the police.
The accused had fled the spot by the time police reached there.
