Police gains 'vital' info on absconding gang-rape accused

The Delhi Police team which was in Aurangabad in search of Akshay Thakur, an accused in the Delhi gang-rape case, returned on Thursday with "vital" information about the fugitive.

Aurangabad acting superintendent of police Pranav Kumar told PTI that the Delhi police team rigorously questioned the father and brother of the accused, who hails from Lahankarma village of the district and is about 125 km from Patna, before returning to the national capital.

The SP said that though the accused could not be caught, the police team has collected "vital" information which will help catch him soon.

Saryu Singh, the father of the accused, and younger brother Abhay Singh were detained by the police and rigorously questioned at Tandwa police station on Wednesday evening. They were later released, the SP said.

Meanwhile, residents of the village expressed deep anguish over what they felt was maligning of the name of the village by Thakur, the fifth accused in the gang-rape of the girl in the national capital in a moving bus on Sunday.

Many of them even sought death sentence for Thakur for the barbaric act.

A stoic silence prevailed in Thakur's home which was broken time to time by  cries of women of the family.

Thakur, son of a marginal farmer, studied in government school at Tandwa till matriculation before leaving for Chhattisgarh to work in some brew factory. He had landed in Delhi a year ago, the locals said.

Lallan Ram, JD(U) MLA of Kutumba in the district, said the incident was extremely condemnable and has soiled the name of Aurangabad.

Rajendra Chaudhary, the mukhiya (head) of Ramnagar panchayat under which Lahankarma village falls, said Akshay Thakur had put a blot on the name of the village and demanded stringent punishment to him for being involved in the heinous crime.

Sarpanch Arvind Paswan too expressed grief over the involvement of a resident of the village in the gang-rape.

Safalta Singh of neighbouring Dhami village demanded that Thakur along with other accused in the gang-rape be hanged without any loss of time.