A 23-year-old college student, who was allegedly gangraped on August 24 at Chamundi Hills near Mysuru in Karnataka, has reportedly left the city with her family and did not record her statement with the police. The lack of victim’s statement has weakened the case against the five accused arrested.
According to NDTV sources, the victim was unwilling to record her statement in connection with the case. Police sources said that the victim had also declined to give her statement earlier as well as she was so traumatised and was not in a position to give statement to police on the incident.
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Meanwhile, Karnataka DG and IGP Praveen Sood said on Saturday that five labourers allegedly involved in the rape case were arrested. The five, who frequented Mysuru often, are from the “labour class” doing jobs like wiring, carpentry and driving, he said, adding, they hailed from Tirupur in Tamil Nadu.
“As per preliminary interrogation, one of them is a juvenile – a 17-year-old – subject to confirmation”, he said. The sixth one is absconding.
They accosted the college student and her male friend near the Chamundi foothills on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24 and tried to rob them. When they did not succeed, they allegedly assaulted him and raped her, police sources said. “It’s a case of robbery first”, Sood said, adding, the culprits also demanded Rs three lakh but declined to go into details. However, he said there was no blackmail angle to the incident so far. Sood said the arrested accused used to come to Mysuru for some work with their friends to Bandipalya APMC yard, a wholesale vegetable market, from the neighbouring state.
“Before going back (home to Tamil Nadu), they had the habit of drinking (alcohol) and partying. They were there on that day (August 24). What happened thereafter all of you know”, Sood said.
“We have to be sensitive to the trauma she is suffering”, Sood said, adding, police could gather information from her male friend but it was “limited” as he was unconscious and the incident happened between 7 pm and 8 pm (when it was dark). There is information that some of the accused had “criminal background” and were involved in cases in Tamil Nadu but it needed to be verified, according to him. “We will file the charge-sheet as soon as possible”, Sood said, adding, Forensic Science Laboratory teams are working “full-time” as part of the investigation.
A police official told Times of India that a “a thorough search of the incident site and a collection of evidence helped us uncover the two tickets, which allowed us to solve the case”.
An investigation led authorities to believe that the tickets had been purchased on a bus operated by the Tamil Nadu State Express Transport Corporation. Karnataka authorities were able to locate the five out of six suspects with the help of their counterparts in Tamil Nadu, in the the early hours of Saturday.
According to police sources, the liquor bottles had a security seal from the Tamil Nadu Excise Department, which aided in catching the thieves. The investigation involved cops from Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Hassan, and Mandya.
Sood requested the High Court to expedite trial in the case. He said a special prosecutor would be appointed if required and efforts would be made to see that the perpetrators get punishment as soon as possible.
(with inputs from PTI)
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