JOIN USPolice ask mall for CCTV footage to nail rapists
Officers investigating the gang rape case have sought Sunday’s closed-circuit television footage from authorities of Saket’s Select CityWalk shopping mall to identify clothes worn by the 23-year-old paramedical student and her male friend to confirm the sequence of events.
The friend, a 28-year-old software engineer, has told police that they had gone to watch ‘Life of Pi’ at the mall on Sunday evening. After the movie, the couple took an autorickshaw from outside the mall to Munirka bus stop.
“Sunday’s footage of CCTV cameras installed inside and outside the mall would confirm the complainant’s statement. It would also help us identify clothes worn by the victim,” a police officer said.
The woman’s clothes are considered to be vital evidence due to possibility of blood stains and traces of semen being found during forensic examination. The woman and her boyfriend were stripped of their clothing and thrown semi-naked from the bus under Mahipalpur flyover in south Delhi at around 10:25 pm.
Police suspect that the accused burnt the couple’s clothes, but are hopeful of unraveling clues during interrogation of Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma, who were sent to four-day police custody by Saket Court on Wednesday.
“We have managed to recover the victims’ mobile phones and shoes along with the cellphones of the four accused arrested,” the officer said. The call data of the recovered phones of the accused can be helpful to trace absconding accused Akshay Thakur and Raju, the officer added.
Cops have already collected evidence from the bus in which the crime took place and sent clothes of Ram Singh, Pawan, Vinay and Mukesh Singh for forensic examination.
The woman, a Mahavir Enclave resident, has also given a written statement to police, explaining in detail what happened to her and her friend on the fateful night.
According to police, the accused took turns to rape the woman as the bus roamed around Dhaula Kuan, Delhi Cantonment, Mahipalpur and Dwarka.
As per CCTV footage of a hotel at Mahipalpur, the bus crossed the Dhaula Kuan-Mahipalpur stretch twice.