Bulandshahr gang rape: Victims identify 3 of 8 culprits, but police yet to make any arrests

A horrific gang rape, right on National Highway 91 in Uttar Pradesh, sent shock waves throughout the country, putting the Akhilesh Yadav government in the dock over the steep deterioration in the law-and-order situation in the state.

A 39-year-old woman from Noida and her 13-year-old daughter were dragged out of their car on NH-91 and raped by a gang of eight highway robbers in the presence of family.
The incident took place in Bulandshahr in west UP, about 65 km from Delhi, close to the highway which connects Delhi and Kanpur, in the wee hours of Saturday when the family was on way to Shahjahanpur.

The gang, infamous as highway gang or Ghumantu gang, waylaid the car around 2.30 am, forcing it to stop, by throwing something at it. When the car stopped, the gang of eight men overpowered the family, including the two brothers, at gunpoint and drove the car through an underpass to a secluded spot near the sugarcane fields. After raping the girl and the woman for nearly three hours, they left with the loot.

The hapless family walked 7 km to the rural police station to file a complaint, but the police refused to react, despite being informed of the outrage and dilly-dallied in registering an FIR.
The police registered an FIR with proper sections only after Bulandshahr SSP Vaibhav Krishna reached the scene of the crime, almost 18 hours after the incident. He sent the victims to hospital for medical check-up, which confirmed rape.

Krishna suspended station in-charge Ramsen Singh and six other policemen, including area beat in-charge, duty officer, inspector and patrolling jeep personnel on the spot and ordered a departmental inquiry against Dy SP Himanshu Gaurav for laxity in highway security.

But the strong reaction against the horrific rape after media stirred into action forced Akhilesh Yadav to crack the whip late afternoon on Sunday.
UP director-general of police, Javed Ahmed, who visited the scene of crime, along with home secretary DK Panda on Sunday, told reporters that three of the five accused had been identified.

Three of the eight culprits that have been identified are Bablu from Punjab, Naresh Thakur from Rajasthan and Rais from Haryana. The family members identified them after the police showed them photographs of the highway gang members, police sources said.

Still facing ire from the media and opposition parties, the chief minister suspended Bulandshahr SSP and SP late in the evening.
The DGP said 15 suspects had been detained and are being questioned. With the CM monitoring the matter himself, seven police teams are reportedly searching Bulandshahr and Meerut.

Zee exposes UP police
The UP police's shoddy investigation came to the fore when a Zee News team reached the crime spot and found a gold chain and a ladies purse lying there. The findings by Zee team turned the UP police pale that often talks about having expertise in solving crimes. It was after Zee flashed out the news and handed over the items that can be a key to the probe that UP police swung into action.