The police on Sunday arrested four men in connection with the gang rape and murder of a 25-year-old woman, whose body had been found in a sack in Sarita Vihar on Wednesday, 27 February, reported ANI.
The arrested have been identified as Dinesh Prasad (25), Saurabh Bhardwaj (19), Rahimuudin (25) and Chanderkesh (30). The fifth suspect, Dhirender is on the run, according to Hindustan Times.
The woman had been identified as a resident of Ambedkar Nagar and her family had reported her missing as of 25 February. She was found with injury marks on her neck and a mobile phone and a handwritten note had been recovered from her jeans pocket, reported The Indian Express.
The note held three men responsible for her murder, but the police found no connection between the girl and the men mentioned in the letter, DCP (south-east) Chinmoy Biswal said, reported ANI.
According to Hindustan Times, all three men were rounded up for questioning. “We found that the woman had phoned them on the day she went missing. However, on a detailed inspection of call records and GPS locations of their phones, it was found that they were not with the woman since the time she went missing,” the police said.
According to DCP Biswal, a scrutiny of the woman’s call records revealed that the three men had never been in touch with her prior to the day she died and the three also denied knowing her.
The Indian Express said that by using the woman’s call records, the police were able to identify a 25-year-old man who had nine cases of theft against him and arrested him on 3 March. This man, Dinesh Prasad, told the police that he had met Dhirender in prison in 2018, according to Hindustan Times.
“Dinesh and Dhirender were in Tihar jail and had an enmity with an inmate, Bunty. On coming out, they made a plan to frame Bunty’s brother Arush in a murder case with the intention of taking revenge and acquiring his land,” DCP Biswal said.
The deceased was a friend of Prasad’s female friend, the police said.
“Last Monday, he called the woman, whom he had known for a few years, and promised her a job. When the woman reached Prasad’s house, he, Dhirender and Bhardwaj assaulted her and forced her to write a letter naming Bunty’s brother Aarush and two of his friends,” the DCP said.
According to the police, the woman was strangled on Tuesday morning, after which they used her phone to call Arush a few times to frame him. Prasad then deleted his number from the woman’s phone and threw away his phone. Two men, Rahimuudin and Chanderkesh were hired to dispose of the body, which was then dumped near the railway line.
The accused have also confessed to gang-raping the woman, reported ANI.
(With inputs from ANI, Hindustan Times and The Indian Express.)
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