Rape accused called it ‘inquiry’

[1]

Shakti Mills, the crime scene — FILE PHOTO

The five accused who raped the 22-year-old photojournalist on August 22, pretended to investigate the girl in a murder case in front of the victim’s colleague who was tied up at a distance. The police suspects that the accused did so to prevent the colleague from resisting or shouting for help.
In his statement, which is part of the 600-page chargesheet that the crime branch submitted in the court, the male colleague has said, “At around 6.30 pm when we were about to leave the place after refusing to go along with the accused to meet their boss, one of the accused told me that a murder had taken place at the spot some time ago and that I had committed it.” The scared victims told the accused that they were only journalists and had not killed anyone. At that point, one of the accused called out to the others saying, “Arre idhar aao, shikaar idhar hai” (come here, the prey is here). The victims then begged them to let them go.
The male colleague mentioned in his statement that the accused took the photojournalist to a distance on the pretext of questioning her separately. The accused exchanged conversations like “inquiry chalu hai” (inquiry is on) and “Wo bhi kuchh nahi bata rahi hai, tum bhi kuch nahi bata rahe ho, tum dono ka kuchh karna padega.” (both of you are not revealing anything, something will have to be done).
The colleague has also mentioned in his statement that the accused “inquired” the victim one by one. One of the accused asked: “Ladki ka thik se inquiry kiya kya” (have you inquired the girl thoroughly), to which another accused replied: “Ladki barabar nahi bol rahi hai” (the girl is not saying much). The first accused then said, “Theek hai, tum iske paas ruko, main jaake fir se inquiry kar ke aata hu” (all right, you stay here. I will go back and inquire her again). All the accused then laughed. This was the time when Kasim Bengali went to the victim and exploited her for the second time.
The male colleague had no idea of the horror the girl had gone through until the accused let them go and she told him that all the five men had raped her. She also told him that she was bleeding and suffered acute pain.