Four held for gang rape of US woman sent to police custody

New Delhi : A local court on Thursday sent four persons, including a tourist guide, who were arrested on the charge of sexually assaulting a US tourist here earlier this year, to two-day police custody.

Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand allowed Delhi Police to quiz Aniruddha Singh, Omprakash, Maqsood and Vivek, who were arrested for gang raping the American tourist.

Police sought custody on the ground that it has to conduct medical examination of the accused and locate the exact crime scene.

They said that custodial interrogation of the accused is also required to identify the fifth accused.

Defence counsel Sandeep Kapur appearing for Vivek, an accused in the case, however, opposed the plea.

The accused were presented before the court after the expiry of their two-day judicial custody.

They were arrested from different cities in the raids conducted by Delhi Police on Monday.

Among the accused, Aniruddha Singh was a Nepal-based tourist guide, Omprakash a driver, Maqsood a helper and Vivek was a bell-boy at the hotel where the crime occurred.

Police initially identified Vivek from the duty register of room service, as he was the first to enter the victim’s room on the day of the crime.

Police recorded the 30-year-old victim’s statement last week when she arrived in Delhi from America.

As per her complaint, she was gang raped at a luxury hotel in the first week of April this year.

Delhi Police had registered an FIR earlier this month on the complaint of the woman as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj intervened in the matter.

The victim had filed a police complaint with the help of an NGO early December, saying that the accused drugged her and sexually assaulted her for two days and also made an MMS.

The accused have, however, denied the charge.

IANS