Information that came in through the sources of a head constable saved India a major international embarrassment after a Danish woman was gang-raped by nine persons near the New Delhi railway station in January 2014, months after the December 2012 gang-rape.
Head constable Arvin was the beat officer of the area where the crime took place. He was on patrolling duty when he learnt about the incident.
“Even before he was briefed about his role or provided clues about the suspects, Arvind had ordered his sources to gather information about the rapists,” said a senior investigator.
The top brass of the Delhi Police, meanwhile, were terribly tense. Instructions from the then Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi were clear. All the perpetrators had to be caught at the earliest. Several teams consisting of almost 100 policemen were constituted even as Raj Kumar, then Paharganj SHO as well as the investigating officer in this case, was tasked with getting the job done.
It was Arvind who finally provided a breakthrough. His sources told him that one Mahendra alias Ganja, who was under judicial custody in a case of theft, was released from Tihar jail just days before this crime, and that he and his men could be involved in the gang-rape.
Ganja was nabbed soon after and interrogated. Initially, he denied involvement. Later, he confessed and led the police to the other suspects, which included three juveniles.
The interrogation also threw up some horrific details. The woman had been abducted and gang-raped for four hours. She had tried to scare the perpetrators by saying she had AIDS, but that had led to a frightening reaction from the assailants.
Gruesome details
“Ganja asked one of the boys to rush and fetch condoms. The boy could only buy three to four condoms with the money he had. While some rapists used the contraceptive, others chose not to,” said the officer on condition of anonymity. The medical shop owner’s testimony served as evidence later.
The victim, meanwhile, decided to fly out of India. She did not even stay behind for a medical examination. The Delhi Police escorted her till the airport.
Once she settled in the flight, she collapsed because of the trauma.
“We requested the Danish government and they met the victim to request her to undergo a medical examination. The government was very helpful and they even helped with recording her statement,” said another officer who did not want to be named.
Since then, the victim has come to India once to identify the suspected rapists. “At the end, we had collected enough evidence against the accused and that helped us create a water-tight case,” said the police officer.
