Kullu police arrests 3 in US national’s gangrape case
The girl was raped by three persons in the truck between 1.30 am to 2.30.
In a major breakthrough,almost two days after intense investigations,Kullu police has arrested all three accused ,including a truck driver allegedly involved in the gangrape of a 30-year-old US tourist near Manali,famous hill destination in Himachal Pradesh.
Identified as Lucky,Arjun and Som Bahadur,all in the age group of 19 to 25 year,had gone under hiding abandoning the truck,(a tipper) used in the crime,at village Dongri near Manali.
“Two accused were arrested last night after police conducted raids at different places in Manali and third was arrested early this morning,” said Inspector General of Police (law and order) Sanjay Kundu .
Highly placed sources said this was one of the cases where the police used hi-tech means in the investigations including mobile call interceptions as one of the accused was trying to escape and was detained near Mandi ,where the local police had set-up a special barrier to nab him.
The incident had happened on Tuesday morning when the US national ,who had reached Manali a day before,was taken away in a truck 20 kms away from the town ,promising her about safe dropping at her private guest house. Instead,she was raped by three persons in the truck between 1.30 am to 2.30. She was later dropped at Manali bus stand .
The victim had reached Manali police station around 4 am and lodged a complaint giving details of the incident and important clues about the accused including their descriptions. “The traumatised woman was medically examined on Tuesday and the report had confirmed sexual assault. This even corroborated with evidence police teams ,and forensic experts had collected after it had found the truck near Manali on Wednesday”,said SP Kullu V.K.Dhawan.
The police had also collected samples of the girls hairs and detected blood strains in the front cabin of the truck,beside signs of her struggle. Dhawan said all the three accused were being interrogated and maybe taken to different spots where they have sold-out or concealed the stolen articles of the victim including her mobile phone and camera beside foreign and Indian currency.
” They will also be produced before the court for remand”,said the Kullu SP. Director General of Police B.Kamal Kumar,two days back had also set-up a special investigation team headed by IGP (Mandi) P.L.Thakur to oversee the investigations .
The incident has sent shock waves in the hills,particularly the tourists destinations visited by foreign nationals.
The victim had told the police that she tried to escape,when three men –who initially were very friendly turned hostile. “I jumped from the window of the truck but failed to find a safe route since it was all hills around. There,I had no clue of the road in darkness. Two of them ran after me and forcibly took me back in the vehicle by physically lifting .I prayed them to leave me but no one listened”,she said.
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