Para dacoity, gangrape: Probe exposes police laxity, 5 held
LUCKNOW: The sensational dacoity at a carpenter’s house and gang rape with his 12-year-old minor daughter in a Para village was the fallout of the allegedcops’ laxity.
The negligence by local police was noticed in the probe undertaken by Lucknow crime branch sleuths who claimed to have cracked the Para incident and arrested five people on Tuesday night. However, seven other people involved in the incident are still at large.
Those arrested have been identified as Shambu Rawat, his two sons Guddu and Saroj, Indal and Chetram, while others at large were identified as Shambu’s two brothers Dinesh alias Manohar, Pooran, and Udairaj, Dhanesh, Onkar, Shri Kishan and Rajesh, all residents of Sitapur.
Sources said the two key accused Saroj and Dinesh Rawat and their families were staying in the state capital for the past 3 years but cops had no proper intelligence inputs about them. “They were nabbed by police in Kakori in July this year but were released due to unknown reasons,” said a senior cop supervising the probe and added, “Moreover, the dacoity cases confessed by them was registered as simple thefts by the Kakori police.”
“The gang has at least 30 members and might have committed multiple crimes in the past. The gang, however, had a major setback when its 17 members were arrested in connection with a dacoity worth `2.5 crore at a businessman’s house in Fatehpur, Barabanki in February this year and they are still lodged in jail. Those arrested also included Shambu’s son Naresh and nephew Pintu and nearly ` 2.2 crore was recovered from their possession,” he said.
The cop said the remaining gang members thereafter started targeting small houses believing that it would help averting police attention and they would also manage to collect money for bail for those lodged in jail.
He said the entire gang left their native places in Sitapur and started living at different locations in Lucknow. He said most of them stayed at the residence of the gang’s two key members Shambu and his brother Dinesh in Kakori’s Bamraulli village. “They all gathered at Dinesh’s place before committing dacoity at the carpenter’s house in Para’s Salempur Pataura village on September 27 and dacoity at a farmer’s house in Kakori’s Baajnagar village on September 28,” he emphasised.
Moreover, it is not the first incident but they had committed similar incidents in Kakori and Para area. The gang committed dacoity in Taj Nagar village of Kakori, theft at three shops in Mohan and dacoity at a farmer’s house in Kakori’s Narauna village on July 14, 27 and September 14 respectively. But the previous incidents were registered as simple thefts by Kakori and Para police that emboldened the gang. MOBILE SURVEILLANCE HELPED COPS
Sub-inspector (S-I) Akshay Kumar of crime branch said the electronic surveillance played a major role in cracking the case. He said the accused had taken away mobile phones of the victims at Kakori and Para. However, the phone numbers were tacked when Shambu’s two sons Guddu and Saroj started using it.
He said Shambu and his sons were found missing from the house in Ahibaranpur village in Sitapur when raid was conducted there.
“Shambhu came under the police radar when police team reached his house in Kakori and found that he had shifted to some other place after selling his house for just `10 lakh only two days after the Para gang rape and dacoity incident. Shambhu had spent `7 lakh for bail of his son and 16 other gang members lodged in Barabanki jail,” said Kumar.
The S-I said cops got the information about Shambu staying with his family at a rented house in Zarhara village near Picnic spot in Indira Nagar. He said the police team first nabbed Sambhu and remaining four others were arrested later on his tip off.
“His brother Dinesh and six others managed to escape after Shambu’s arrest. Dinesh was found missing when we raided his house in Kakori but found the belongings looted in Kakori and Para incidents from there,” he stated.
“Of the arrested accused, Indal and Chetram and Udai Raj, Dinesh and Dhanesh are accsued of gangrape. But, the charges of gang rape would be imposed against all,” he emphasised.