Four neighbours held for murder, gang rape in UP's Jewar

A day after a scrap dealer was killed and four women of his family raped by a gang of armed men near Jewar, the Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday held the family's four neighbours and were probing personal enmity/robbery as the crime's motive.

"The Special Task Force (STF) apprehended four persons today (Friday) morning for killing a scrap dealer and gang-raping his mother, wife, sister, and sister-in-law, two km from Jewar on the Yamuna Expressway on Thursday," an STF official told IANS.

He identified three of the arrested as Hazi, Munna, and Wahim. The fourth person is yet to be identified. They are being questioned by the STF officials.

The arrests were made on the basis of statements given by the women, who underwent medical examination after they claimed gang rape, he said.

"We are interrogating the arrested persons named by the women. We are working on personal enmity motive since the family members have changed statements. Prima facie, robbery appears to be the motive," Gautam Buddh Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police Love Kumar said.

"The victims' statements under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure will be recorded on Saturday before a magistrate. We have called for a team of experts to make sketches of the suspects," Kumar said.

However, district health officials said prima facie they did not come across sexual assault though they were awaiting the forensic test reports.

"As per government guidelines, we conducted the medical check-up of the women who claimed gang rape. Though there was absence of DNA material, which generally remains for 72 hours after the crime, we are waiting for forensic test reports," Chief Medical Officer Anurag Bhargav said.

The crime took place some 60 km from here on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway around 1.30 a.m. on Thursday when eight members of the Greater Noida-based family, including the four women, were headed to Bulandshahr to visit an ailing relative.

According to the victims, six armed men forced their Eeco van to stop by puncturing its tyres with spikes near Sabota village. The criminals then took the women to a nearby field and allegedly gang-raped them.

When scrap dealer Shakeel Qureshi, 40, put up resistance, the men shot him dead.

The victims were robbed of their valuables, mobile phones and Rs 47,000, the police said.

Four teams of Gautam Buddh Nagar police and a team of STF are jointly investigating the case.

--IANS

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