Vagabond's clue helps police arrest 3 in gang-rape case

New Delhi, Sep 18 Finding itself staring at a dead end while looking for culprits in a gang-rape case, Delhi Police was helped in their arrest by a vagabond who revealed that one of the accused was a 'one-eyed man'.

The 17-year-old victim was gang-raped by three motorcycle-borne persons when she was returning home with her brother-in-law late Tuesday night in north-east Delhi's Harsh Vihar.

"The duo was walking back to their house after alighting from an auto-rickshaw around one km away. The three accused accosted them and attacked the man. The trio then took the girl to a secluded spot and gang-raped her before fleeing with her purse," a senior police officer said.

A police patrol on duty in the area was alerted to the crime, following which it chased the suspects who abandoned the bike and the snatched purse near a railway track and escaped.

The police found out that the motorcycle was stolen earlier in the night. As the policemen launched a manhunt for the accused, they came across a vagabond who revealed that one of the fleeing accused was a one-eyed heavily built man. His description matched with the girl's version of the incident.

The police then sifted through CCTV footage from the area and finally traced the three accused identified as Rajeev, Shahzad, and Ikram. All accused, in their twenties, are residents of north-east Delhi and Ghaziabad.

( With inputs from IANS )