To nab accused, policemen posed as Aadhaar officials

FROM CAMPING at Deer Park to posing as Aadhaar officials: police went on overdrive to crack the Hauz Khas Village rape case.

For the first five hours after the woman approached them, south district police didn’t have any leads apart from her statement. Several teams, including the special staff, were formed by DCP (south) Ishwar Singh.

The first lead came when a team led by inspectors Suresh Chand Verma and Arun Dev Nehra got CCTV footage from a restaurant in Hauz Khas Village (HKV), which showed the woman’s sister with a friend of the accused. “Ten police teams were formed to trace the accused and his friend,” police said.

One of the teams found a man at Deer Park with an injury on his head and his leg. Investigators initially thought he was the accused and detained him, but he was later found to be a college student. After questioning, he was given a clean chit.

Sources said that on Monday, a team found the accused’s friend near Deer Park. Police said the friend, a juvenile, pointed them in the direction of the accused’s home in Arjun Vihar.

“Police decided to conduct a raid but ACP Anand Kumar Rai suggested they try another approach. They posed as government officials making Aadhaar cards, and asked his mother about him. She told him he hadn’t been home since Monday, and promised to call them when he returned,” police said.

Several teams waited outside his home and nabbed him when he came home around 11.45 pm on Monday.