Delhi Police are piecing together the movements of the sleeper bus inside which a 16-year-old girl from Uttar Pradesh was gang-raped using CCTV recordings and mobile phone data of one of the accused to establish the vehicle’s route on the night of August 4 when the crime happened, officials said.
Most were related to speeding, while one issued in Hamirpur on July 23 carried a fine of ₹ 23,000 for allegedly running the vehicle without a valid permit. The eight challans together amounted to ₹ 54,000, news agency PTI reported citing police. Investigators have also found that the bus was bought in April and registered in Firozabad on April 28. The samples will be compared with DNA collected from driver Kuldeep, 39, and conductor Sandeep, 26, both residents of Kanpur. On a rainy night, she boarded the sleeper bus after the conductor allegedly assured her that it would drop her at Noida Sector 63, where her cousin lived.
The travel company had not verified the background of either accused before they were hired, PTI reported citing police sources The girl had left her home in Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri after an argument with her mother and reached Pari Chowk in Greater Noida. The probe has thrown up another detail – the bus had attracted eight traffic challans in Uttar Pradesh in July, with five of them issued in Mathura. Police are examining footage from cameras at several points, including Pari Chowk in Greater Noida, Timarpur parking and Kashmere Gate, to track the bus’ route as it travelled towards the national capital. One CCTV camera recorded the vehicle entering the Hanuman Mandir flyover, which helped investigators with reconstructing its route. The investigation is also turning to forensic evidence recovered from the vehicle.
The girl’s clothes, which police said contain blood and semen stains, have been sent for forensic analysis.
The bus, which had curtains inside that led to no one from the outside identifying what was happening, ran for several kilometers unstopped before the accused left the girl in Delhi.
She was subsequently left near Kashmere Gate and took an auto-rickshaw to a police station, where she reported the alleged assault. Police registered an FIR and arranged for her medical examination, which confirmed rape, officials said. The footage is being cross-checked with the location history of a mobile phone linked to one of the accused. It had developed a technical problem and was taken to a workshop in Surajpur for repairs. They allegedly raped her inside the moving bus and threatened to kill her when she resisted. Police managed to locate the bus within hours by following CCTV leads. Kuldeep and Sandeep were arrested from a parking area in Timarpur, and the vehicle was taken into custody. Forensic teams later recovered strands of the girl’s hair from inside the bus. The seat cover and other material collected from the vehicle are also being examined for possible evidence. The bus had curtains fitted around its sleeper berths, which shielded the crime from anyone outside. Police are now examining how the bus managed to travel from Greater Noida towards Delhi for several kilometres without being intercepted. Investigators are combining CCTV footage, mobile phone location data and forensic findings to establish the vehicle’s exact movements and reconstruct what happened during the journey. (With inputs from PTI)
Investigators are trying to establish not only the route but also where the bus may have stopped during the journey, a senior police officer said, according to the report. The bus, however, was not running its usual passenger service, according to the company operating it. After the work, it was being driven towards Kashmere Gate for painting, the company said. The two accused picked up the girl at around 9pm and headed towards Kashmere Gate, according to the police investigation. Both men also underwent potency tests, police said. The travel company had previously told police that the vehicle’s CCTV system was not functioning as it was undergoing renovation.
