The police, who have arrested 34-year-old Irshad Khan for staging an attack on his sister-in-law, have not arrested the woman who is allegedly believed to be a co-conspirator. “We are still collecting more evidence to prove her involvement in the incident,” said the police here on Sunday.
“We arrested Irshad under the charges of molestation and criminal conspiracy. Further investigations are on to ascertain the involvement of others. We will contemplate booking the victim under perjury based on more evidence,” Hemanth Nimbalkar, Additional Commissioner of Police (East) said.
Irshad had done a reconnaissance of the area and identified Govindapura Circle where a CCTV camera was present. He allegedly explained the plan to his sister-in-law at their home. On the morning of January 4, he masked himself with a cap and a pullover, and then ‘molested’ her at the area. Investigations revealed that the sister-in-law then bit her tongue, and scratched herself with a safety pin to showcase the ‘brutality’ of the attack.
As per the plan, Irshad ‘rushed’ to the spot and took the victim to Dr. Ambedkar Hospital to get a medico-legal case filed. He then contacted friends who worked with a ‘Kannada welfare’ organisation, retrieved CCTV camera footage from the area, and approached the police. “He contacted several NGOs to pressure the police to trace the accused, shared the CCTV camera footage with the media in an effort to gain publicity for this,” said K.P. Ravi Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police.
Irshad’s plan began to unravel when the police analysed footage from CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood.
Apart from the CCTV camera at the circle, K.G. Halli police looked at other cameras and found the ‘attacker’ and the ‘victim’ in conversation through their walk towards the lane. The police said Irshad had failed to notice other CCTV cameras that captured them together. The police also noticed in the footage that the ‘attacker’ had a pronounced limp. K.G. Halli police inspector Sirajuddin and his team soon linked it to Irshad who had a discernible limp when he frequented the police station.
The police analysed the calls made from the mobile phones of Irshad and found that he had called the victim 400 times before and after the incident. Cell tower location obtained placed him in the area when the incident occurred.
During questioning, he refuted the allegations. When presented with evidence, however, he broke down and confessed to the crime, the police said.
