A man accused in a two-year-old gang-rape case allegedly staged his own shooting to frame the brother of the victim.
It is alleged that 32-year-old Sanjay hired someone to shoot at himself after repeated attempts to bribe and coerce the gang-rape victim failed.
The police have now arrested Sanjay, who was one of the four accused in the gang-rape case registered in Outer Delhi’s Mangolpuri, said a senior police officer.
On Sunday night, a call was made to the police control room that a man was lying injured after sustaining a bullet injury.
When the police reached the spot, they found that the bullet had brushed past Sanjay and the wound was not a deep one. He was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“He identified the accused for us. During investigation, we found that Sanjay was named in a gang-rape case and the man he was accusing of shooting him was the brother of the victim he and three others were accused of raping,” said a senior police officer.
Further probe revealed that the man he accused of shooting him was not even present at the crime spot. Suspecting something amiss, the police questioned Sanjay at length after which he purportedly admitted to faking the incident.
According to the police, on December 8, 2012, the victim who was then a Class IX student was raped by three and Sanjay was a conspirator. On the girl’s complaint, a case was registered; Sanjay and three others – Kuldeep, Jogendra and Sandeep – were arrested.
“Since the incident and the subsequent police action, the victim’s family members have alleged that the four accused and their family members have been pressurising them to withdraw the complaint,” said the officer.
The victim’s brother said the accused even offered them a huge sum of money to give in to their demands, but they remained undeterred and decided to pursue the case till justice was delivered.
He added that the accused would send their accomplices to harass them, while the trial of the case was on because of which he had to even send his sister to stay at a relative’s house.
