5-yr-old`s rape: Main accused Manoj Sah sent in police custody

New Delhi: Manoj Sah, the main accused in the gangrape of a five-year-old in east Delhi, was today remanded by a city court in five-day police custody to confront him with co-accused Pradeep.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg remanded Manoj, 22, to police custody till April 30 after the probe agency said, "He has to be taken to his native place in Muzzafarpur, Bihar to recover the `blood-stained clothes` which he was wearing at the time of commission of crime." The police also submitted that they have to confront him with co-accused 19-year-old Pradeep to know the entire facts as well as to corroborate his version given to the investigators at the time of his arrest. While seeking his five-day custody, the police also said that they need to find out the movement of the accused from the point of them leaving Delhi and reaching Bihar. "In view of the facts and circumstances of the case the accused is remanded to five-day police custody," the court said. During the proceedings, the police also took Manoj`s handwriting sample with the permission of the court to match it with the handwriting on a piece of paper recovered from Pradeep and allegedly given to him by Manoj with instruction to call him in two days when they left Delhi and parted ways at Chhapra. Manoj was produced before the court from judicial custody in a muffled face amid high security. Meanwhile, after the court proceedings, when Manoj was being escorted out of the courtroom, he was all of a sudden made to sit for a while in the corridor. Upon inquiry, the police party said that the accused was feeling uneasy. PTI