Lonavala rape: Cops look for DNA clue

Ten days after the incident,police are struggling to identify the suspect. Their hopes of getting it from CCTV footage at the Lonavala resort were dashed as the cottage where the incident took place,Supreme Room number 367,is not under CCTV surveillance.

Inspector N S Nyahalde of Paud police station said,“There are CCTV cameras in Aamby Valley,but not around the cottages. So there is no footage of the suspect. We have prepared a sketch,but we are yet to get any clues.”

Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe,who had raised the issue at the Assembly session in Nagpur,said that she had asked the police to conduct a DNA test on all Aamby Valley staff and employees of the firm to which the victim belonged,present at the resort on the day of the incident.

“I am contacting police every alternate day to know the case status. The police have not yet identified the suspect. So I asked them to conduct a DNA test of persons who were present at the resort. The police have taken blood samples of some,” Gorhe said.

Confirming this,Deputy Superintendent of Police Shrikrishna Kokate said,“We called some persons who were at the resort on the day of the incident. We have collected their blood samples and would,in consultation with forensic experts,send them to the laboratory for matching.”

The 29-year-old Delhi-based woman had said that she was raped in the cottage between 12 am and 3.30 am on December 10. The FIR was registered at Paud police station against an unidentified person on December 12. The victim had come to Aamby Valley for a national conference on December 9.

After dinner,she had gone to the cottage around 12 am. She switched on two lights of her room and went to sleep. An unidentified person got into the room,switched off the lights and threatened to hit her with a pointed object,and allegedly raped her twice.

Sources said there were more than a thousand people at the resort at the time of the incident and 270 of them were employees of the firm she worked for.