4 years after December 16 rape, another woman raped in moving car

A 20-year-old girl, who was on a job-hunt, was allegedly raped in a car in South Delhi’s Moti Bagh area, a grim throwback to the horrific gang rape and torture of a para-medic student in a moving bus on December 16 four years ago which had shaken the country.

The girl, a resident of Noida who had come to Delhi looking for a job, was waiting for a bus near AIIMS on Wednesday evening when the accused Avneesh, 28, driving a car which had a sticker of the home ministry, offered to drop her.

Police said the accused is the driver of a man whose father works in Central Industrial Security Force.

Avneesh raped the girl inside the car in a secluded area but she managed to flee around midnight and was found by a police patrol team which brought her to South Campus police station in the wee hours on Thursday. The accused has been caught.

The incident came to light on Friday, the fourth anniversary of the December 16, 2012 gang rape incident which had triggered massive outrage forcing the government to come out with stricter legal provision to deal with crime against women.

However, the mother of the December 16 gang rape victim said nothing has changed in the last four years as far as women safety is concerned.

“We feel nothing has changed. The governments have also changed. It has been four years but the situation remains the same. For the last four years, we have been running from pillar to post to get justice. But no action has been taken against the accused,” said a distraught Asha Devi.

A youth who was among six persons convicted in the case was released last year as he was a juvenile when he had committed the crime. One of accused had committed suicide while four others are lodged in jail as they have appealed against their death penalty.

According to Delhi Police statistics, 2,199 rape cases were reported in the capital in 2015 while till November 30 this year, 1,981 cases of rape have been registered.

As per National Crime Records Bureau, Delhi has the highest rate of crimes against women among all the cities in the country. Last year, the total number of cases of crime against women in Delhi was 17,104.

On Wednesday’s rape of the Noida girl, police said prompt action taken and the accused, a resident of Etah in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on Thursday.

“The car is a private vehicle. The owner’s father works in CISF and is posted in Delhi. We will be questioning them about the sticker. If it has been procured illegally, action will be taken against them,” said DCP (South) Ishwar Singh.

Avneesh belongs Etah in Uttar Pradesh but has been staying in Delhi for the last three-four years. He is married with two kids. Earlier, he was working as a school cab driver.

He will be interrogated in detail, said the officer.

Singh said motorcycle patrol team accompanied by an emergency response vehicle had taken the victim to the area where the accused raped her and she had managed to identify the place. The operation was again resumed after her medical examination was over at around 5.30 am on Thursday.

“The professional combing of the area led the police to the suspect’s car that was parked at a distance of nearly 100 metres from the location initially narrated by the complainant, along with two-three other cars in the nearby jhuggi,” he said.

On the basis of the registration number of the vehicle, the address of the owner was traced to Kotla Mubarakpur.

“When we picked up the owner, he told us that the car in question belonged to him, but it was with his driver Avneesh. When he called Avneesh, his phone was found to be switched off,” said Singh.

After this, immediate technical analysis of the call detail records of the accused driver was carried out and friends and acquaintances whom he used to interact with frequently were questioned, said the officer.

Around 1.30 pm, police zeroed down on the accused and by 2 pm, Avneesh was located in a slum situated in Moti Bagh area where he was about to begin drinking with a friend, he added.

During  preliminary interrogation, he confessed to the crime, Singh claimed.

Later, in view of the cardinal importance of forensic and biological evidence in such cases, experts from Regional Forensic Science Laboratory were requisitioned and a thorough search and inspection of the car was carried out.

In all, nine exhibits were picked up by the forensic teams, said the officer, adding that the cell phone of the victim was also recovered from the car.

“The victim is undergoing professional counselling. The case is an example of professional policing but it is an unfortunate incident,” he said.

The officer said that a charge sheet in the case will be filed soon and they will be requesting that the trial is conducted by a fast-track court.