The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday arrested Dalpat Singh, who allegedly raped a six-year-old minor in the Garh area of Hapur on August 6 from the jungle adjoining the Ganga bank in the Gajraula area of Amroha district, officials said.
On Thursday, the accused had tried to mislead the police by leaving his clothes and a suicide note on the banks of the river, said Sarvesh Mishra, Additional Suprintendent of Police (ASP), Hapur, adding “The note said he did not want to die of a police bullet and would choose his own death.”
Mr. Mishra told The Hindu that the accused, who hailed from Mehmoodpur village of Gajraula, did not have a criminal record. “When he was taken to the spot for recreation of the crime scene, he tried to run away after snatching the service revolver of a Sub Inspector, but he was soon nabbed after a brief encounter in which he was shot in the leg, below the knee,” Mr. Mishra said.
He added, “He [Singh] has told us the sequence of events. The clothes that he was wearing at the time of crime have been recovered and will be sent for forensic test. We already have the tyre mark of the motorcycle on which he kidnapped the girl and his own foot marks at the spot of crime.”
Mr. Mishra said the rape survivor was out of danger and would be discharged in a week.
The survivor’s father told The Hindu that his daughter had identified the accused from a photograph. “He should be given the maximum possible punishment,” said the father of five children who worked as a labourer. He said he did not know the accused or his relatives.
