Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra visits the scene of crime in Mysuru, Friday, Aug 27, 2021.
Police have succeeded in cracking the Mysuru gang-rape case and 5 accused persons were arrested on Saturday, according to the report. However, Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra declined to comment on reports that four or five people have been taken into custody in connection with the incident.
"Police have succeeded," the Minister said without going into the details.
Home Minister Jnanendra, who has arrived to brief Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the development, stated that the operation to nab the perpetrators was successful and he would reveal the details by noon.
According to police sources, while four of the accused were arrested in Sathyamangala, Tamil Nadu., the fifth was nabbed in Chamarajanagar, Karnataka. Among the four accused from Tamil Nadu, three had criminal backgrounds.
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.
Another special team working on the 'bus ticket' clue managed to nab the five culprits. As many as five special teams investigated the case from different angles.
According to the police, all the arrested accused persons turned out to be coolies. They 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. They followed the couple for three days and on the fourth day they attacked them. 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. The investigations also revealed that the accused were habitual offenders.
The gang had committed another rape in Kuvempunagar area of Mysuru city five months ago, the police sources said.
Earlier, Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai said he is confident that the police would crack the case as early as possible and apprehend the culprits. Bommai said five police teams are investigating the case.
"Police have taken the Mysuru case very seriously," he told reporters here. "I am confident that the police will succeed in cracking the case as early as possible".
The victim, a college student studying in Mysuru, was gang-raped near Chamundi foothills on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24. Her male friend who was with her was assaulted by the gang.
The gang-members demanded from them Rs three lakh not to make public the video of the rape, police sources said. DG & IGP of Karnataka Praveen Sood is supervising the investigation into the gang-rape which has sparked massive outrage.
(With inputs from agencies)
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