Mysuru gang rape case: Karnataka Police arrest 5 Tamil Nadu youth, one absconding

Bengaluru: Karnataka police have arrested five of six accused persons in gang-rape of an MBA student within four days after the atrocious incident. The Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra who has arrived to brief Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the development said on Saturday that the case had been solved.

He added that the ministry or police will share further information regarding it by 2 pm, Saturday.

Quoting police sources, IANS reports that four of the accused were arrested in Sathyamangala, Tamil Nadu while the fifth was nabbed in Chamarajanagar, Karnataka.

In a press conference, DG&IGP Praveen Sood who is heading the investigation said that one of the arrested accused is a juvenile and his exact age needs to be confirmed. He also added that one of the accused is still at large.

Among the four accused from Tamil Nadu, three had criminal backgrounds, says the report. Earlier it was suspected that all the accused were engineering students from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It was found, however, that they were not involved in the crime.

As many as five special teams investigated the case from different angles. Quoting the police, an IANS report said that all the arrested accused persons are daily wage earners and were habitual offenders who often came to the Mysuru vegetable market to sell bananas.

After selling bananas, the accused used to consume alcohol in an isolated area of Lalithadripura, where the incident took place on Tuesday.

They noticed the victim frequenting the area regularly with her male friend and followed the couple for three days and on the fourth day, they attacked them, said the police.

According to police, the accused initially wanted to rob the couple, but later gang-raped the victim.

The police who scanned the crime spot found a bus ticket purchased in Talawadi, Tamil Nadu and launched a probe despite the victim refusing to record her statement. The investigators who secured beer bottles and cans from the scene of crime have traced the MRP liquor shop from where it was purchased and obtained CCTV footage.

The special teams obtained information from Tamil Nadu police on local criminals and matched the details, including the video footage obtained in Mysuru.

Quoting Police sources, IANS reports that the arrested gang had committed another rape in the Kuvempunagar area of Mysuru city five months ago,

It was on Tuesday night, a 23-year-old MBA student was allegedly raped by four or five people when she was with her friend. Both were returning from a forest area in Mysuru, and the incident took place in the Tippayyanakere region, in the Lalithadripura area of Mysuru. The girl was from outside Karnataka and was studying in Mysuru.

Meanwhile, reports say that the 22-year-old survivor who was in the hospital for three days was discharged by her parents from the hospital late on Friday, disregarding medical advice. According to reports, she is said to have returned to her hometown in Maharashtra.

However, the parents of the survivor have informed the police that the survivor will co-operate with the investigation at the appropriate time as she is not in a condition to give a statement on the incident. Her classmate was discharged on Wednesday.