Lucknow: After nearly a week-long chase, the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested the main accused in the Bulandshahr gang-rape case and the kingpin of the notorious Bawaria gang on Monday evening.
Salim Bawaria, who was on the run since the horrific gang-rape of a Noida-based woman and her teenage daughter, was arrested by the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police.
Salim, whose arrest was earlier confirmed by the UPDGP Javeed Ahmed, was nabbed along with two other accused in the case from Meerut.
Addressing a press conference today, IG Meerut Zone Sujit Kumar Pandey said, ''After chasing him for close to a week, we had arrested Salim, the main accused in the case, and his two close aides Pervej and Sajid from Meerut yesterday.''
We have, by now, arrested six accused in the case. However, a person called Fati is still absconding, he added.
Giving more details about the crime, Pandey said, ''The planning for the crime took place in Kithore area of Meerut.'' Before committing the crime, the Bawaria gang members had consumed alcohol, he said.
A large number of arms, including several country-made pistols, and jewellery belonging to the victims were seized from them, the IG said.
We had formed 18 teams which were sent to 28 locations to nab the culprits, IG Sujeet Pandey added.
After the crime, the gang members had split and fled to different locations. Two of them even fled to Bihar and Jharkhand, Pandey said.
Pandey also informed the media that the victims have identified all the accused arrested in the case.
However, the top cop committed a faux pas by naming the victims in the Bulandshahr gang-rape case.
Though not detailing the full details regarding Salim Bawaria's arrest, Pandey said that Salim's exact location was traced through his mobile phone.
The UP Police had earlier picked up 11 persons closely linked to the Bawaria gang-members and extracted crucial information regarding Salim's possible whereabouts.
The arrested Bawaria gang members were under electronic surveillance and, based on the information provided by them, the police made efforts to trace Salim's location through his call details.
Interestingly, Salim, who was using different SIM cards to contact his gang members, had kept his mobile phone switched off and made only important calls.
His last call to one of his close aides, who was nabbed by the police on Sunday, provided the much-needed info to the police officials and finally led to his arrest from Meerut.
After his arrest, Salim Bawaria was taken to Hapur where he was formally interrogated. It is being said that Salim broke down after the third degree treatment given to him by the police and narrated the whole sequence of events after the Bulandshahr incident.
He was interrogated by IG Zone Sujit Kumar Pandey and Bulandshahr SSP Anees Ahmed Ansari during which he confessed his role in the heinous crime.
On July 31, 35-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter were brutally gang-raped at gunpoint on NH-9 near Bulandshahr.
The women, along with their family, are from Noida. The family was driving to a funeral in Bulandshahr on the night of July 31 when their car was stopped by the Bawaria gang of robbers
The family was first robbed and thrashed. The gang later tied up the men and gang-raped the woman and daughter for three hours.
