Kasargod Gang-rape - Three in Police Net, Deny Allegations
Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod
Kasargod, Dec 28: In a fresh development in the Kumble gang-rape case, the police on Friday December 28 arrested three persons from Kanhangad. All three, however, denied raping the girl.
The arrested are Muhammed Kunhi alias Asgar (24), Hussain (26) and Unais (35), all three from Uduma. They were caught on allegations of raping an 18-year-old girl from Kanyana in Bantwal on December 24.
The police, who had earlier said that the girl had been gang-raped by seven persons including the three arrested, said on Friday that during interrogation, the three men had admitted to knowing the girl but denied raping her.
It is learnt that during the interrogation, the accused said that they came to know the girl when they met her for the first time at a mall in Mangalore on December 20. She reportedly asked them to drop her at the place where she worked. They took her in their car and on the way, stopped at a hotel for food. Mohammed Kunhi introduced himself as Asgar. When he asked the girl her mobile number, she replied that she did not have a cell phone.
Mohammed Kunhi then gave his own number to the girl and told her that he was from Uppala. The men then dropped her at the place where she was employed and went on their way to Kasargod.
On December 24, Kunhi received a call on his mobile from a coin booth number. It was from the girl. She told him that she was in Uppala and asked where he was. Soon after, the three men came in a car and picked her up, and all four of them went to the water park in Mangalore, and left for Uppala after a while.
On reaching Uppala, the girl reportedly said that she wanted to visit a relative's house in Kadapura, Kumble and asked them to drop her at the railway station, from where she planned to take an auto to the relative's house. The accused told the police that it was at the auto rickshaw stand that Ganesh, another accused who was arrested on Thursday December 27, took her in his auto and raped her at an isolated spot.
The three of them said that they came to know of the allegations against them only after the media flashed the news of the rape the next day. They told the police that as they were getting too many calls, they switched off their mobile phones, which they admitted was a wrong thing to do.
The police arrested the three from Kanhangad following a tip-off. They will be subjected to further interrogation, the police have said.