New Delhi, March 20: Delhi Police have claimed to solve a
kidnapping case in an interesting manner as a display picture on WhatsApp led
the police to nab two men and two women accused of kidnapping, raping and
torturing a minor girl from south-west Delhi. A case of rape and kidnapping has
been registered against the culprits.
While sharing the sequence of the event that unfolded as the
case was eventually cracked, the police said the kidnappers were in regular
touch of the mother of the victim who had filed a case with the police to trace
her daughter. The kidnappers were trying to persuade the mother by offering
money in lieu of not pursuing the case any further.
According to police during one of the conversation a WhatsApp
display picture put up by a kidnapper was seen by the mother. She recognised
the woman as someone who lived in her locality. She reported the matter to the
police who arrested the woman immediately. Her interrogation led to the arrests
of the other accused. The child had been kidnapped to be pushed into
prostitution, investigators said.
The girl, who was kidnapped from south-west Delhi’s Kapashera area
on January 21, was beaten, burnt with cigarettes, and raped by men — some of who
knew she was a minor — before she was rescued on Tuesday, March 15.
The police, till Thursday, March 17, had arrested two men and
two women who kidnapped and sold the minor and were probing if the gang
trafficked more children, said Urvija Goel, deputy commissioner of police
(west).
On Friday, March18, the police arrested Robin, a 21-year-old man
from Sonepat, who allegedly offered the girl a piece of birthday cake laced
with sedatives, said DCP Goel.
The rescue and arrests were made by officers of Rajouri Garden
police station while they were working to recover children who had gone
missing. The local police in Kapashera registered a kidnapping case soon after
her disappearance but failed to make any headway in the case.
On Friday, March 18, Delhi Police top brass acted swiftly against
the station house officer (SHO) of Kapashera, transferring him to the police
lines. “There was negligence in the probe...there was lapse in supervision. The
police did search for the girl, but there were certain shortcomings,” said
Ingit Pratap Singh, deputy commissioner of police (south-west).
A police official engaged in the rescue operation, said that when Rajouri Garden police contacted the girl’s mother in a bid to trace her about a month ago, it was learnt that the kidnappers were in touch with her. They were trying to bribe her so that she stopped pursuing the case of her daughter’s disappearance. However, the mother did not want money. She just wanted her daughter back. “The kidnappers would call from different numbers and then switch them off,” the officer said.