New Delhi, Dec 2: 'It was almost a blind case', said Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta, but the lead given by the victim about a word 'Muskaan' written on the left glasspane of the pickup truck led sleuths to the Haryana village where the rapists were hiding.
'It was Muskaan written in Hindi with the English alphabet M', said Hargovind Singh Dhaliwal, the energetic Deputy Commissioner of Police(South), who got fulsome praise from his chief at the press conference.
'We first zeroed in on a pickup truck in Azadpur Mandi with the word Muskaan, but the details didn't tally. The Mahindra pickup truck that we seized last night had Muskaan writing on the left pane and its back was painted green, as described by the victim', Dhaliwal said.
Forensic experts are now going through the pickup truck to collect evidence of the heinous gangrape act. The pickup truck had been hidden in a village which could hardly be noticed even during daytime, Dhaliwal said.
Police first developed information on three Mewati gangs. Nearly 310 policemen from Delhi 'with external force' raided the village in Mewat area, and the two - Usman alias Kale and Shamshad alias Khutkan were caught.
It transpired that a third accused Shahid alias Chhota Billi had surrendered in a cow slaughter case before a Faridabad court two days after the gangrape to escape the police heat. Delhi Police will take a production warrant to take Shahid from Ballabhgarh jail, Gupta said.
Two others - Kamroo alias Mobile and Iqbal alias Badi Billi - are still missing, but their arrests could take place soon, the police chief said.
Nearly 6,000 trucks passing through Delhi were checked in search of the culprits. 66 prisoners released from Tihar jail and nearly 200 others released from jails in National Capital Region were verified in search of the accused, Gupta said.
The main accused Usman Ali alias Kale was involved in a gangrape case in Faridabad alongwith his maternal uncle and brothers in 2006, Gupta said.
About the use of mattress inside the truck, Dhaliwal said, this was a common thing because truck owners often provided mattresses in pickup truck for their labourers to take rest. We found nearly 20 per cent of pickup trucks had mattresses, the DCP said.
Gupta had a warning for BPO companies. He said, police will make it mandatory through executive order, dropping of all BPO employees at their residences, failing which action will be taken against the BPO companies.
They must provide at least one security guard in the BPO cabs, because all of them are outsourced. Convergys alone, where the victim worked, had nearly 400 cabs, he said.
About the gangrape incident, Dhaliwal said, the pickup truck in which the rapists were travelling had noticed from their headlights falling on the back of the Convergys cab Tavera that the two ladies were sitting at the back. They followed the Tavera, and after the driver dropped the two ladies on Ring Road, the truck followed the ladies on the lonely road leading to Mochi village, where they were staying.
The gangrape incident took place on November 26 when the Mizo woman was walking towards her home in Moti village near Dhaula Kuan in south Delhi along with one of her colleagues when the men in a vehicle abducted her and took turns to rape her. She was later dumped in Mongolpuri after which she approached police.
Police commissioner Gupta said that the first PCR call was made 20 minutes after the act, thus losing vital time. Moreover, the Mizo employee was speaking English which the police constable, conversant in Hindi, found it difficult to understand. Yet, the constable tried to give chase, Gupta said.
