The unlit road near LSR College where a police encounter with one of the accused took place Tuesda
NEW DELHI: Police investigating the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl at Aastha Kunj park in south Delhi on Monday evening are trying to establish if the three accused have been involved in similar incidents earlier that have gone unreported. They then teamed up to unleash 40 minutes of terror on the hapless couple. Police sources said the girl and her friend were sitting on a bench around 7:15 pm when the three men allegedly approached them, posing as policemen in civvies.
Because the three men would often hang around the park in the late hours, the police are pursuing this angle.
By around 8pm, the men had left the spot, police said. Hemant and Mukesh went out for dinner after that and returned home later, according to the investigators. They were clearly looking for a vulnerable target, say police sources, with Asif – armed with a pistol and a condom in pocket – taking the lead in entering the park, followed by the two brothers, Hemant Singh and Mukesh Singh. Having intimidated the two teenagers, they took the boy around 200m away and slapped and threatened him before taking the girl to a secluded, dark stretch of the park. That’s where they took turns to allegedly rape her. The girl was threatened against disclosing the incident to anyone. She was asked to leave the place immediately. Asif seemed to be more cautious. Hemant and Mukesh have allegedly changed their statements frequently during questioning. At one point, they claimed they were at home when the incident took place but gave a different account later. Their call detail records and CCTV footage, however, allegedly placed them near the park at the time.
Police got an early lead but couldn’t find him either at the Okhla mandi or his house on Monday night.