The six men, who allegedly gang-raped a young girl in a moving bus in Delhi on Sunday, were apparently so confident they will not be caught that the assailants carried on with their routine chores the next day while one brought back the vehicle to his house.
But luck ran out for the men within 24 hours as the police, who were aided by the description provided by the victims about the vehicle, zeroed in on them. One of them was arrested from Rajasthan, where he was hiding.
The six men had allegedly raped the 23-year-old student in a moving bus on Sunday night and beaten up her male friend.
Two of them are still absconding.
The men also looted a carpenter by providing him a lift in the bus.
These details, which emerged during the ongoing probe into the dastardly crime, were given by Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.
The arrested have been identified as driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Pawan, a fruit seller, and Vinay, an assistant instructor in a gymnasium. Two of them -- Akshay Thakur and Raju -- are still on the run.
"Pawan and Vinay went back to their normal vocations and pretended that nothing had happened while Ram Singh and Akshay took the bus to Noida in the early hours of Monday to avoid being caught. Later, Ram Singh thought nothing would happen and brought the vehicle back to R K Puram, where it was detected," Kumar said.
Just before heading for a joyride, he said, they had a party. Ram Singh and his helper Akshay had cooked chicken and enjoyed a small party, along with his younger brother Mukesh.
"They decided to go for a joy ride and have fun while picking some extra bucks by giving lifts to people," said Chhaya Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (south).
Akshay then took out the vehicle and Vinay and Pawan joined them for the ride.
"They called out to collect passengers at the bus stop at Munirka and the couple boarded it at around 9.15 pm. After the incident, they dispersed and Raju, Mukesh and Akshay tried to destroy the evidence of the incident," Sharma said.
Investigators said the male friend of the rape victim gave them a description of the bus.
"He told us it was a white bus and it had curtains. He told us that the name Yadav was written on it," Kumar said.
It all started when the victim's friend objected to the six men passing lewd comments at the girl.
"The gang asked what was the couple doing in the night and why they were travelling in the night. The male friend asked him why were they bothered and asked them to mind their own business. Then they picked up a fight and the boy was hit on his head. The girl also fought with them to save her friend but she was also hit.
"They dragged the girl to the backseat, where they sexually assaulted her," he said.
After assaulting them and dumping them, Ram Singh took to the wheels and then dropped the other five at their houses, before parking the vehicle at his owner's place in Noida.
The next day, he drove the bus back to R K Puram but landed in the police's net as investigators were waiting for him.
"The bus was cleaned. But we have got enough forensic evidence," Kumar said.
