5-yr-old's rape: Main accused Manoj Sah sent in police custody

Manoj Sah, the main accused in the gangrape of a five-year-old in east Delhi, was today remanded by a city court in five-day police custody to confront him with co-accused Pradeep.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg remanded Manoj, 22, to police custody till April 30 after the probe agency said, "He has to be taken to his native place in Muzzafarpur, Bihar to recover the 'blood-stained clothes' which he was wearing at the time of commission of crime."

The police also submitted that they have to confront him with co-accused 19-year-old Pradeep to know the entire facts as well as to corroborate his version given to the investigators at the time of his arrest.

While seeking his five-day custody, the police also said that they need to find out the movement of the accused from the point of them leaving Delhi and reaching Bihar.

"In view of the facts and circumstances of the case the accused is remanded to five-day police custody," the court said.

During the proceedings, the police also took Manoj's handwriting sample with the permission of the court to match it with the handwriting on a piece of paper recovered from Pradeep and allegedly given to him by Manoj with instruction to call him in two days when they left Delhi and parted ways at Chhapra.

Manoj was produced before the court from judicial custody in a muffled face amid high security.

Meanwhile, after the court proceedings, when Manoj was being escorted out of the courtroom, he was all of a sudden made to sit for a while in the corridor. Upon inquiry, the police party said that the accused was feeling uneasy.

Manoj was arrested on Saturday from Muzaffarpur in Bihar. Upon initial interrogation, he revealed that Pradeep was also involved in the crime.

Following the revelation, Pradeep was apprehended from Barahiya village in Bihar's Lakhisarai district late night on April 22 from his maternal uncle's residence.

Both the accused have been booked under the provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act which deals with cases of sexual offences where the victim is a child.

They are accused of brutally raping the five-year-old girl on April 15 in a building in east Delhi's Gandhinagar locality where the victim and the accused lived.

The girl was rescued 40 hours later on April 17 and is now recuperating at the AIIMS.

Manoj had told his interrogators that on April 15, his friend Pradeep had come to his house and they had consumed alcohol.    Manoj claimed that Pradeep insisted on bringing a girl to the house and he went out and lured the girl with a chocolate.

After assaulting the girl sexually, Manoj attempted to strangle her. Suspecting that the victim had died, both the accused fled from the spot and boarded a train to reach Chhapra. They then parted ways. While Manoj headed to his in-laws’ house, Pradeep went to his maternal uncle's residence in Lakhisarai.

While he claimed that Pradeep alone had sexually assaulted the girl, the police has said that both of them had raped the minor.