Night of shame continues……

To add to all this, shocking incidents of rape and murder are reported from time to time. But the rape and assault of Nirbhaya was a case apart in terms of its sheer brutality.

Ram Singh’s interrogation revealed the involvement of his brother Mukesh (aged twenty-six), his neighbours Pawan (aged nineteen) and Vinay (aged twenty), his bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh (aged twenty-eight), and lastly, a youngster he knew as Raju (name changed as he is a juvenile in conflict with the law). Raju, according to Singh, was gifted in hailing passengers in a unique manner and was popular in the bus transport community of the trans-Yamuna area or east Delhi.

On the evening of 17 December—the day Ram Singh was arrested—SI Arvind Kumar of the Special Task Force of the south district left with a police team of six for Karoli in Rajasthan, 300 kilometres away from Delhi. His mission was to nab Mukesh, Ram Singh’s younger brother. The police team drove all night and reached Karoli in the wee hours of the following day. The policemen from Delhi reported to the Karoli police station the following morning (propriety demands that a police team from outstation inform the local police of their arrival and the purpose of their visit to the local jurisdiction). SI Arvind requested the local police for additional forces. He was told that he would have to wait until at least 10 a.m. for local police help. The police team was pressed for time and was in no mood to wait. SI Arvind, as the team leader, lodged an entry in the police station daily diary noting his arrival and left for Mukesh’s village, which was 40 kilometres away.

To be continued……