1,500 questioned before arrest of trio

NEW DELHI: Police said that the three men — arrested for allegedly gang raping the 16-year-old — have told them that they were emboldened by the fact that there was no one around to save the couple in the park.

After their custodial interrogation, a senior police officer said that the three men have denied that they had followed the couple into Sheesh Mahal park and said they were loitering around when the couple entered on the evening of December 16.

“When they saw the 16-year- old girl and her 19-year-old friend sitting there, they conspired to assault them as they knew there was no one around to come to the couple’s rescue. They first hit the man on the head who fell unconscious for a few minutes and then dragged the girl away to another part of the park to rape her,” said the officer.

The male friend later regained consciousness but could not find the girl.

“The male friend started looking for her and also sought help from a few passersby but could not trace her. He later gave up and sat on a bench and noticed the girl walking towards him. She told him that three men had sexually assaulted her and threatened her against going to the police,” said the officer.

Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Aslam Khan said they zeroed in on the trio of Arun Yadav, Kamlesh and the auto driver because of their prolonged absence from their home and based on their phone records.

“We did not have any concrete leads in the form of CCTV footage. Locals told us that the accused live in the nearby Haiderpur slums. We interrogated close to 1,500 people matching the description provided by the victims,” said Khan.

During the questioning, police reached the houses of nearly two dozen persons, the trio being among them, who were not present at home. Messages were left for them through neighbours but they did not turn up for questioning.

“Among the 20-25 people missing, most eventually came forward and were questioned. Once it was certain that most of the people questioned till then were not involved, we decided to check phone locations. The trio was found around the park on December 16 around the time of the crime,” Khan added. A hunt was initiated the trio nabbed.