An autorickshaw driver, who was arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl he found wandering the streets of Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, sustained injuries while attempting to escape from police custody on September 28, investigators claimed.
Earlier this week, the girl was found on the road, bleeding from injuries caused by the sexual assault. The police arrested two autorickshaw drivers in connection with the case – Bharat Soni for the sexually assault and Rakesh Malviya for failing to report the crime.
Ujjain Superintendent of Police Sachin Sharma said that the girl had gone missing from Satna – nearly 720 km from Ujjain – on September 24 and arrived in the holy city in the early hours of September 25. The autorickshaw driver, who found her wandering on the streets, raped her, police said.
Through a chain of technical, medical and circumstantial evidence, the police narrowed down the purported timespan – between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. – during which the assault took place. Video evidence, corroborated by eyewitness account, further established that she was seen with six people – four of them autorickshaw drivers, Mr. Sharma added.
“Footage from more than a thousand CCTV cameras of the city was checked, information was collected from residents of colonies located on the bypass road and technical evidence was gathered. Various teams interrogated those with criminal records and others including autorickshaw drivers, rickshaw pullers, e-rickshaw drivers, bus operators, and people at railway stations and bus stands were also interrogated,” he said.
On September 28, the police learnt through an informer that an autodriver Bharat, whose auto has Arjun written on it, took the girl with him. The SIT members took him into custody and interrogated him during which he purportedly confessed to his crime, said a police statement.
According to the statement, the police took Bharat to inspect the spot of the crime where he tried to flee after pushing the police personnel accompanying him.
“Efforts were made to arrest the accused by immediately calling additional police force on the spot. The accused pelted stones at the police, due to which some police officers and employees got injured and the accused got injured by falling into a pit while running away,” said Mr. Sharma.
On the victim who was found in semi-clad condition roaming around the streets of Ujjain, the police said that her condition had improved and a surgery she underwent was also successful. It also emerged during the probe that the girl has some intellectual disability and was living in Satna with her maternal grandfather, who is her guardian. While the Satna police said that her grandfather recongnised her with the help of CCTV footage, the Ujjain Police said that available evidence suggested that she travelled alone to Ujjain but the mode of transport was not clear.