Identification parade of accused in engineering student rape case today

Staff Reporter

The police are gearing up for an identification parade of the accused in the engineering student rape case. The parade will be held on Wednesday in the presence of the Tehsildar. The accused would be produced before the victim to confirm the accused who was arrested by Beltarodi Police on Sunday night while attempting to target another woman.

According to police, the process for the identification parade has been completed and the parade would be conducted in the afternoon hours.

On October 4, the engineering student’s brother dropped her at the bus stand from where she boarded a Nagpur-bound bus. Around 9.44 am, she got down from the bus a few metres from her college hostel on Wardha Road. Holding a bag and a cellphone, she was on the way to her hostel. She was talking to someone on her mobile phone while walking. The accused started stalking her in an isolated stretch. He then suddenly caught her hand. When she tried to raise an alarm, he dragged her into the jungle by threatening to kill her with an axe. He took her to an isolated place and sexually assaulted her. Some passers-by heard her screams and rushed to the rescue. The culprit ran away leaving his axe at the spot. The case was registered by Hingna Police on the complaint of the victim and launched an investigation.

The pursuit of the fugitive had involved a staggering 400 police personnel working tirelessly for the past ten days. In a bid to locate the elusive accused, the police even deployed drones to scan an 11-kilometer area from Palloti Engineering College to Beltarodi police station. Despite these efforts, the police had been struggling to make any headway which left senior police officials perplexed. The accused, a resident of Butibori, had been living in jungles and surviving by committing petty thefts and trading stolen goods for sustenance.