Night of shame continues…..

Ram Singh had disclosed that Raju had stayed with him on the night of 15 December—the day prior to the crime. The two knew each other as they had worked together two years earlier in the trans-Yamuna area.

The police did not know Raju’s real name, his cellphone number or his address. None of the other accused knew anything about him.

In the absence of any specific clues, the police went to the trans-Yamuna area, which has a population of 50 lakh in a 50 square kilometre area. It was much like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Police teams fanned out in the area and started asking for a boy named Raju at various bus depots located in east Delhi. Stray bits of information about him came from some quarters alluding to his rapid changes in occupation. He may have been a ragpicker, then a fruit seller and then moved on to bus-cleaning jobs. No one had any specific information on him. The persons who claimed that they had met Raju were requested to be part of the search teams to identify the boy. The search for Raju continued for three days and nights.

Finally, a local resident, who had joined the police search for Raju, spotted a youngster who he thought was Raju in a bus plying between the Anand Vihar bus terminal and Noida. The search then zeroed in on buses plying that route.

On the morning of 21 December, the spotter identified Raju on a bus returning to Anand Vihar from Noida. As soon as this information was relayed to the police, a team rushed to the Anand Vihar bus station and nabbed the juvenile. With Raju’s arrest, all accused involved in the dastardly crime were in our custody.

To be continued……