Rewari Gangrape Case: Some of Accused May Have Assaulted More Women Earlier, Say Police

The details were revealed during the interrogation.

Rewari: Some of the suspects in the September 12 Rewari gangrape case had sexually assaulted other women at the same spot, said reports on Tuesday. The men also managed to get away with it because nobody spoke up, said The Times of India. Police said they learnt of four earlier sexual assaults involving the same group of men while interrogating them. They had abducted, drugged and gang-raped the 19-year-old former state topper.

Another Army man, Naveen (Nikku), was arrested on Tuesday from the Army Air Defence College in Odisha’s Gopalpur. Army jawan Pankaj was arrested earlier. Two more arrests were made late on Tuesday; those of Abhishek from Mahendergarh and Manjeet from Rajasthan, for allegedly helping the prime suspects. Mewat SP Nazneen Bhasin told the daily that now all suspects have been caught.

Pankaj and his two friends, Nishu and Manish, were identified by police as the prime suspects. The trio allegedly followed the woman, abducted her at the bus stop and took her back to their village in Pankaj’s car. During interrogation, Nishu reportedly told police that he had lured other women to the room in the past, including sex workers, and that his friends had joined him there in sexually assaulting them. “Their luck ran out as the 19-year-old woman went ahead and reported the crime. The men deliberately used Pankaj’s car because she knew him well and would not get suspicious.

“Pankaj was trained for his Army job by her father. She knew Nishu too. These men never thought she will report this to the cops, something they had managed to dodge in the past,” said the police officer. While Nishu was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody, the bail plea of Sanjeev, a registered medical practitioner who the suspects had called, has been rejected. Sanjeev was arrested for not reporting the crime to the police.

Naveen, the Armyman arrested from Odisha, is from the same village and was home on a 28-day leave. “He also visited the tubewell (room) when the survivor was held captive there. But he also did not report the matter to the authorities,” said additional DGP Shrikant Jadhav. Police did not rule out adding rape charges, saying they will make a decision after further investigation.