German woman's rape: Police set up four spl teams

Yet to make any headway in ascertaining the identity of the autorickshaw driver who allegedly sexually assaulted a 19-year-old German woman in central Delhi's Prasad Nagar area, Delhi Police today set up four special teams to crack the case.
"We have set up four special teams to solve the case. Each team will be led by an inspector-rank official and one ACP- rank official will monitor two teams each," said DCP (Central) Parmaditya.
"We have started by checking all CCTV grabs obtained from spots near the hotel where the woman had put up. However, the exact scene of the crime and details of the accused person's physical appearance are still unclear," he said.

According to senior police officials, delay in reporting the matter has made the investigation difficult.
The incident took place on December 14 and it was only on February 5 that the woman approached Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) via e-mail.
DCW then waited for the woman to come to Delhi, which she did on February 19. Police was approached a day after that.

"Had the commission reported the matter on February 5 itself, we would have either sent a team immediately or contacted local police at wherever the woman was.
"Because of the delay, the woman doesn't remember many of the facts which are crucial to the investigation," an official said.

He said that in such cases, there is also the provision for a 'zero FIR', in which a case can be registered anywhere in the country and then communicated to the police department concerned.
DCW officials, meanwhile, said though they lodged the complaint on February 20, police took four days to register an FIR in this connection.
The complainant is a 19-year-old German woman who works with an NGO in Maharashtra.
In her complaint to DCW, the woman said she managed to
escape the clutches of the perpetrator but he intercepted her again along with a few others and allegedly molested her.

The woman bit the tongue of one of the accused persons and they later fled fearing locals would be drawn to the spot alerted by the commotion.
The latter part of the narrative is yet to be verified by police, who have registered a case under Section 376 (rape) of IPC against one unidentified person and have not yet included Section 34 (common intent).
"We will seek permission to record the statement of the complainant in front of a magistrate and take her to the areas near the hotel to ascertain the place of occurrence of the crime.
"Police are also trying to prepare sketches of the accused from the details given by the complainant and have questioned several autorickshaw drivers in the area," a senior official said, adding that they are looking for a youth who, according to the DCW complaint, escorted the woman back to her hotel after the incident.

The woman had not mentioned the December 14 incident to anyone and left Delhi in a day or two.
She mailed DCW on February 5 and agreed to come here to meet senior officials. After she arrived here, the commission counselled her and guided her in lodging the police complaint, a senior DCW official said.