Third accused in Faridabad rape case arrested

Ashok, was among the three men who allegedly took turns to rape the woman while a fourth, who is still absconding, continued to drive the car around the city.

A CCTV grab of the Scorpio car, in which the woman was allegedly gangraped. (File)

Five days after a 23-year-old woman was abducted and gang-raped in a moving car in Faridabad, police arrested a third person for the crime on Thursday. Two others had already been arrested from Rajasthan on Wednesday. According to police, the accused, Ashok, who was arrested from Mewat’s Punhana area. He was among the three men who allegedly took turns to rape the woman while a fourth, who is still absconding, continued to drive the car around the city.

The incident had taken place Saturday evening when the woman was abducted near Sector 9, while she was walking from work to her home in the city’s NIT area. The four men allegedly forced her into their Scorpio and switched off her phone. For the next two hours, the three of them took turns raping her while the fourth drove the vehicle to Sikri via the bypass. It was here that she was finally released, and her phone and purse handed back to her.

The police control room, meanwhile, received two calls regarding the incident – one from the woman’s brother, who she was speaking to over the phone when she was abducted, and another by a bystander who witnessed the incident. It was through the information provided by the latter that, in less than a week, Faridabad police succeeded in nabbing three of the four men inside the vehicle. Faridabad Police had constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter, headed by Pooja Dabla, ACP (women’s wing), who in turn constituted four teams.

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“Information was received through the bystander that the vehicle was a white Scorpio which had only a temporary number plate. The SIT made calls to agencies of the Mahindra company in Faridabad, Gurgaon, Palwal and Mewat to track down sales made in the last two months,” said Sube Singh, PRO of Faridabad Police.

Once the data was obtained, police personnel began tracking down the owners of the vehicles. Simultaneously, they also began scouring through CCTV footage of liquor vends, petrol pumps and other outlets that seemed to be relevant. “On the basis of technical investigation as well as the information received from sources, we were able to make two arrests on Wednesday and a third on Thursday,” said Singh.

The vehicle used in the crime was also seized on Wednesday, the same day that its owner, Sanjeev alias Sanju, was arrested. The two accused, Sanju and Arshad, who was arrested on Wednesday, were produced in court on Thursday morning and remanded in judicial custody.

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