Ten days after a 19-year-old woman from Rewari district was gangraped, the Haryana Police Sunday arrested two key accused in the case, including an Army man.
The accused had kept changing their hideouts when they were on the run.
Army man Pankaj and another key accused Manish were nabbed from Satnali in Mahendergarh district in the morning near a dhaba, head of Special Investigation Team, which had been set up to probe into the case, said briefing the media at Rewari after their arrest.
"The two arrested accused had buried their phone somewhere. Later, with the help of petty criminals they hid at dhanis (hamlets), took shelter in dharamshalas and they slept in fields and hills," SIT chief Naazneen Bhasin, who was flanked by ADGP Shrikant Jadhav, told reporters.
Anyone who might have sheltered the accused during the period they remained on run will also have to face action, she said.
Without sharing the specific locations of their hideouts, Bhasin, however, said they kept wandering, including along the Haryana-Rajasthan border.
Earlier, on September 16, the Haryana Police had arrested the main accused, Nishu, besides two other accused in the case.
Bhasin said during investigations, Nishu's role has emerged as "mastermind" in the case.
Replying to a question, Bhasin said some of the accused have been involved in organised crime incidents in the past.
Nishu is currently in police remand while other accused Sanjeev and Deendayal have been remanded to judicial custody.
Sanjeev was a medical practitioner who had attended to the woman first after the crime and Deendayal was the owner of the property where she was allegedly gangraped, police had said.
Many local villagers have alleged that the property where the victim was gang raped was used for "nefarious activities" in the past. The SIT said these allegations are already under investigation.
The woman was abducted at a bus stop in Kanina town in neighbouring Mahendragarh district on September 12 while she was on the way to a coaching class, the police had earlier said.
She was allegedly drugged and gangraped at a room housing a tubewell for irrigation.
When asked why police it took this much time to nab the accused, Bhasin said various cells of the police including ones engaged in gathering ground level intelligence, technical surveillance and interrogation of arrested accused, were at job and processing all this data does take time.
She claimed the SIT worked round-the-clock in the case and "in shortest humanly possible time the SIT has made a breakthrough".
The gangrape had prompted opposition parties to demand Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's resignation on moral grounds, alleging the state had failed to protect its daughters.
Asked if recoveries like arms have been made from Pankaj and Manish, Bhasin said there were many things which cannot be shared at this stage as that may compromise the investigation.
"Many things have come to light, as investigations progress and whatever information we can share, we will do," she said, adding police will try to complete investigations as early as possible.
Bhasin said while five persons have been arrested in the case, but possibility of more people being involved in the matter has not been ruled out at this stage, something which the teenage's family too has suspected.
After the incident took place on September 12, the Haryana Police had set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Mewat SP Naazneen Bhasin and announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to the arrest of the main accused in the case.
The accused live in the same village in Rewari and the they knew the woman and her family, police said earlier.
The victim's family members and a 'Mahapanchayat' or conglomeration of several villages in Rewari district, which was convened Friday, had demanded early arrest of the accused.
Earlier this week, traders in Kosli town had observed a bandh to protest against the gang-rape.
The victim's mother, while demanding capital punishment for the prime accused, had earlier told reporters earlier that her daughter was in "acute trauma" after the incident.
Doctors who attended on the victim too had said she was in "severe trauma", though her vital health parameters were said to be stable.
The police had drawn flak for allegedly not initiating prompt action after the complaint was registered.
After the shunting out of Rewari Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajesh Duggal, a woman assistant sub-inspector had later been suspended over alleged delay in taking action in the gangrape case.
The victim's family had alleged that the police failed to take prompt action on their complaint and delayed action by citing jurisdictional issues between their units in Rewari and Mahendragarh districts.
The family had alleged that the Women's Police Station in Rewari, after registering a "zero FIR" in the case, delayed action and failed to promptly hand over the probe to the Mahendragarh Police, under whose jurisdiction the incident took place.
A zero FIR can be filed at any police station and can later be transferred to the police station concerned.
( PTI)
