Haryana gangrape: Multiple raids underway to nab accused

Chandigarh: Haryana Police conducted raids at several places Sunday to nab the three accused, including an Army man, wanted in the gangrape case of a young woman in Mahendergarh district. Raids were being conducted at several places in Haryana as well as in Rajasthan, Delhi and some other states, a senior official, who is part of the investigations in the case, said Sunday. “Multiple teams are at job to nab them. We are hopeful of arresting the accused soon,” he said.

Some people have also been rounded up for questioning in connection with the case, police sources said. The woman’s family members, while demanding early arrest of the accused, told reporters in Rewari on Sunday that the woman was in “acute trauma”.

“The accused should be hanged,” the woman’s mother told reporters in her village in Rewari She also said that the family has decided to return a cheque of Rs 2 lakh handed over to them Saturday by district administration officials under the Haryana Victim Compensation Scheme, 2013.

“We do not want this cheque. Is this the price which is being put for honour of my daughter. All we want is justice. We used to hear about long arm of the law, but what is police doing. The accused are yet to be arrested,” she said. The Haryana Police has set up a special investigation team headed by Nuh SP, Naazneen Bhasin and announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the arrest of the accused. Police said the woman was allegedly abducted, gangraped at a secluded place which is located near a tubewell in the fields after being offered a drink laced with sedatives. “The secluded spot is near tubewells, where a small room is built,” the police official, who is part of the investigations, said. Police have also recovered a liquor bottle from the crime spot. Police had Saturday released photographs and names of the accused, who have been identified as Pankaj, an Army jawan, Manish and Nishu.

The accused live in the same village in Rewari and the they knew the woman and her family, police said. Lt Gen Cherish Mathson, who heads the South Western Command, had said in Jaipur Saturday that they will help the police in the probe. The victim’s father has said 8 or 10 men may have raped her but she could identify only three of them. The woman, a school topper who had been felicitated by the government, was abducted from a bus stop in Kanina town on Wednesday while she was on way to a coaching class, police had earlier said.

She was then allegedly drugged and gangraped after being driven to the crime spot, police said. Haryana’s Director General of Police B S Sandhu confirmed Saturday that one of the accused is an Army man posted in Rajasthan. The accused Army personnel, who was on leave, was supposed to re-join his duty Saturday, police said. The special investigation team had visited the crime spot Saturday. The SIT headed by Bhasin comprises two Deputy Superintendents of Police.

The case evoked sharp reaction from opposition parties who have demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on moral grounds, saying the state had failed to protect its daughters.