In fear of harsher punishment, leader asks fellow criminals not to rape but just steal

The fear of harsher action in the heart of a gang-leader, who was wanted in 15 cases of robbery and night burglaries, made him warn his four accomplices to ‘not’ rape two women while robbing 90 kg of copper and brass scrap from a godown in North-west Delhi. All the five accused have been arrested, twenty days after the incident, police said on Thursday.

The incident took place on August 25 at around 3 am, when five persons barged into the godown where a family of eight persons including the car driver of the owner of the godown used to reside. Tej Singh (56), the car driver was also given the work of a caretaker of the godown in Swaroop Nagar where the copper and brass scrap were kept.

Speaking to Millennium Post, Tej Singh said: “I was burning in fever, so was my daughter. At around 3 am, I noticed five persons barging into the godown. They were carrying iron rods and knives with them. After threatening us, they tied all of us and also closed our eyes with cloth pieces. They started loading the scrap in a Tata 407 (mini-truck).”

“Meanwhile, the members of the gang started using obscene language for my wife who is 50-year-old and my daughter who is 20-year-old. They were planning to rape them. To commit the crime, they broke the bulbs installed in the godown. All of us including my wife and daughter pleaded them not to rape. In the meantime, the gang-leader, later identified as Rajesh (24) heard about the plan and he immediately warned them not to rape them,” Singh said.

Rajesh became very angry with his gang members — identified as Dharmender Singh (25), Nagender Yadav (30), Manje Kumar (26) and Dinesh (23). “Rajesh instructed them to stay away from the women as their attempt might land them up behind bars for more years and harsher charges could be framed on them,” a police officer said quoting Singh’s statement that he had recorded while reporting the incident.

After the case was registered, all five of them were arrested by the team of Crime Branch on September 10. The looted items were recovered, police said.