Man held for raping minor after cops scan 800 CCTVs
New Delhi: Having landed a blind case where a six-year-old girl was raped in Central Delhi's Ranjeet Nagar area, the Delhi Police on Sunday said they had solved it in less than a day and arrested the accused, who was identified based on CCTV intelligence gathered during the probe, officials here said.
DCP (Central) Shweta Chauhan said that the accused in the case was a 20-year-old utensils vendor named Suraj. He and the victim did not know each other. The police said he is a resident of Raghubir Nagar and that he had been arrested from Haryana.
"It was difficult to find him on basis of just a photo. We had a breakthrough when he was identified, but he got to know that the police is after him and so he escaped. Our teams arrested him from Kalanaur, Haryana," DCP Chauhan said.
The accused has a record of such criminal cases and was arrested under section 354A/ POCSO 12 at Khyala Police Station earlier as well. This time also, the accused has been arrested under sections 376AB, 377 of IPC and 6 POCSO.
The DCP Central District further told the Millennium Post, "In a course of 36 hrs we checked hundreds of CCTVs and got his photograph. This case was blind. There was no relation to the victim, he was not a resident of the area, there was no phone number, no vehicle, no professional or work ID that could help in the identification of the accused. Several police teams from the central district worked tirelessly for 36 hrs to nab this criminal."
The investigating teams checked almost eight hundred CCTV cameras, officials said, adding that a joint team comprising Special Staff, AATS and Ranjit Nagar Police Station were constituted under the supervision of ACP/Ops, ACP Patel Nagar to crack the case.
As per the investigation report, the accused person allegedly lured the minor girl after promising her a Rs 10 note while she was playing outside her residence on Friday. The police added that the victim was on her way to join a queue for free food in the nearby area.
The heinous crime caused massive outrage, following which the Delhi Commission of Women issued a notice to the Delhi Police seeking swift legal action and a report on the same by October 26.
"I am very anguished over the incident. It is a matter of great concern and shame that we have to go through with such matters of sexual assault with children on frequent basis. Only stringent measures can stop incidents of rapes with girls. I seek immediate action by the Delhi Police in the matter, accused must be immediately arrested and punished with capital punishment," Maliwal was quoted as saying.
Moreover, several civil society organisations and student organisations also staged a protest against the brutal rape in front of the Delhi Police headquarters here in the heart of the Capital near Patel Chowk.
