Night of shame continues…..

When I look back on the high points of those trying times, the fieldwork done by the detectives of the south district during the nights of 16 and 17 December 2012 to identify and locate the bus using CCTV footage of hotels in Mahipalpur stands out as a remarkable piece of police work. I shudder to think of the consequences if the initial breakthrough had not been made so quickly. Following the initial breakthrough and the arrest of Ram Singh, Pawan and Vinay, the three field operations conducted to arrest the remaining accused, namely, Mukesh, Akshay and Raju by 21 December were outstanding. Looking for Raju with no knowledge of his real name, address, physical appearance, the details of his employer or even his religion was an exquisite piece of fieldwork done by the police team headed by SI Arvind Kumar.

Use of criminal forensics and technical data were other high points in the out-of-the-ordinary investigation conducted in the case. Careful collection of evidence from the spot where the male and female victims were found, from the interior of the bus and elsewhere, and the use of DNA matching of blood, hair, saliva, etc.; the matching of bite marks on Nirbhaya’s body with the dental casts of Ram Singh and Akshay; the use of cellular data to establish that the accused and the victims were together in the bus on the route it took; the CCTV footage from Select City mall to show that the couple had seen a movie there and had left by 8.30p.m. on 16 December; the CCTV footage from Hotel Delhi Airport to prove that the bus had passed it twice within a span of nineteen minutes; the dying declarations of Nirbhaya; the testimony of the eyewitness and the medico-legal experts, all made it a watertight case. Pleas taken by the accused in their defence were countered with irrefutable physical and scientific evidence at every stage.

To be continued……