5,000 auto drivers quizzed in Manipal gang rape case

Karnataka Police is making all out efforts, including questioning more than 5,000 auto drivers, to nab the culprits involved in abduction and gang rape of a medical student in Manipal, the Centre was informed Wednesday.

Karnataka Home Minister K J George told Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran that more than 5,000 auto-rickshaw drivers were questioned by the police.

The cyber cell was going through the telephone call data records of all those people who had visited the crime spot during the period of the incident, he informed Ramachandran.

"The Karnataka minister conveyed that a breakthrough in the case could be achieved soon," Ramachandran told reporters in New Delhi.

The student from Kerala was returning to her hostel when unidentified persons kidnapped her from the ManipalUniversity campus and gang raped her last week.

The Union Minister said George and he discussed various issues concerning Karnataka, including coastal security, safe city project and growing Maoist activities in six districts of the southern state.

"We want to improve Centre-state relationship and that is why we are ready to offer help for betterment of Karnataka," Ramachandran said after the meeting.

George requested Ramachandran to include Karnataka as a Naxal-affected state.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh