New Delhi: From using expertise of an IIT
professor to enhance the blurry CCTV footages to tracking a
tempo with a Hindi word starting with `M` written on its side
panes -- it was a virtually a wild goose chase for Delhi
Police while cracking the gangrape of a BPO employee.
"If we were late by a day or two in zeroing in on
them, we would have lost the case," said a senior police
official involved in the investigations of the case in which
two youths were arrested from a Haryana village.
The Mizo woman was abducted by the gang of five
around 1.10 am on November 24 while she was walking towards
her rented accommodation in Moti village near Dhaula Kuan
along with her colleague after being dropped by their office
cab from their workplace in Gurgaon.
"We started blank as we did not have the vehicle
number or the make of the vehicle. The CCTV footage was also
blurred. Even the officials of a automobile manufacturer could
not identify the make of the vehicle. It made our job a little
bit difficult," the official said.
It was then police decided to involve an IIT professor
to get the CCTV footage enhanced. "He was of great help. This
led to a transport expert identifying the vehicle`s make which
was of Mahindra pick-up van. The IIT professor had earlier
worked on enhancing tapes of al Qaeda," the official said.
A PCR call was made 20 minutes after the incident and
a constable who reached the spot could not comprehend what the
victim was speaking as he was not proficient in English.
"However, the constable left his other colleague there and
followed the route taken by the accused," police said.
Despite undergoing trauma, Delhi Police Commissioner B
K Gupta said, the victim provided "unique features" about the
vehicle used in the crime like a Hindi word in English
starting with `M` was written in a slanting manner on the
window panes.
"After making various permutations and combinations,
the most probable word came out to be `Muskan`," said H G S
Dhaliwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South).
The description of the vehicle given by the victim
like flowery decoration, the probable word `Muskan` written on
the tempo and the Rs ten denomination notes given by the
criminals to the victim all gave a clue to police.
"The audacious way and professionalism in committing
crime and the time of incident suggested that some desperate
Mewati gangs might be involved in this crime.
"Particularly, the Rs 10 notes vertically folded with
a rubber band pointed toward a few particular type of probable
group of criminals.?It was ascertained that currency notes of
Rs 10 denomination are normally kept in bundles by Mewati
criminals to pay toll tax," Gupta said.
The investigations then centred around Mewat and
various teams verified the role of gangs and the movements of
their members at the relevant time and found that two gangs
were active during that night in the area of South Delhi,
Dhaliwal said.
"Tempo stands and transporters who may be having or
working on such type of vehicles were scanned. 338 workers and
vendors were examined and verified. Three groups whose
activities were found suspected were thoroughly questioned,"
Dhaliwal said.
A police team also focussed its investigations in
Mongolpuri area where they checked on the local criminals who
had been involved in such crimes and the persons who were
using tempos particularly at night.?
"72 dossiers of criminals were scrutinised and 3,245
tempos of similar description given by the victim were checked
in outer Delhi area and adjoining areas of Haryana.
"Around 110 industrial units and tent shops around the
area where the victim was dropped was thoroughly checked to
find out any possible clue," Dhaliwal said.
105 cases of gang rapes in NCR in the past few years
were thoroughly analysed and location of the offenders was
also checked. Criminals, who were released on bail, involved
in similar crimes were also interrogated.
PTI