NEW DELHI: Ram Singh , 33, the prime accused in Sunday’s gang rape, is a volatile man, known among friends as “Mental,” a police source said on Tuesday. During investigation, he is learnt to have told police how he lost control and ended up brutalizing the woman and assaulting her friend.

“When she resisted and bit his hand, he says, he got very angry. Alcohol and the victims’ defiance, made him go berserk. He picked up a rod and hit the two everywhere. His accomplices followed suit,” a source said.

Ram Singh reportedly started picking up fights at the slightest pretext after the death of his wife two years ago. There’s an accident case registered against him and he has admitted to being involved in several other brawls. He had also run away with a girl in his neighbourhood, sources said.

A police officer said the investigating team led by Inspector Anil Sharma had found Ram Singh a cold and remorseless man. “Initially, he denied everything. But when he began to open up, he chose to divulge each detail, with no repentance. Such brutality does not affect him. He tried to destroy evidence by washing the bus with confidence and told his accomplices to not worry, and lie low for some time. He stayed calm when he went and parked the bus in RK Puram, and then took it back to the owner in Noida. The confidence he shows is not of a novice definitely,” the officer said.

It seems that even as the gang was brutalizing the woman by turns, Ram Singh had made a plan to cover their tracks. Sources say Ram Singh decided to strip the victims completely before throwing them out of the bus to leave no trace of incriminating semen or blood. He also kept their mobiles and switched them off. Three mobiles — one belonging to the woman and two to her friend — have now been recovered along with some of their clothes.

Although police were able to arrest him with his employer’s help, Ram Singh showed his shrewd side again by refusing to undergo the test identification parade on Tuesday.

Police say Ram Singh dropped his accomplices near RK Puram after 10.30pm on Sunday and brought the bus back to Sector 3 in RK Puram. Although his brother Mukesh was initially driving the bus, Ram Singh asked the cleaner, Akshay, to drive it to the garage.

In the morning, all the accused returned to work on his direction. Akshay and Ram Singh plied the bus on its route. Around 9am, when they realized their crime was all over the news, they took the bus to Rohilla Khurd near Sector 62, Noida and washed it thoroughly to remove bloodstains.

But Ram Singh’s plan went awry when the bus owner, Dinesh Yadav, called him to drive it back. “Police had asked Yadav to ensure Ram Singh came back with the bus. He was tricked into coming to RK Puram, where we arrested him,’’ said an investigating officer.

According to police, the accused used to drive continuously through the day. He would pick up schoolchildren at 8am and drop them before picking office goers from the Malai Mandir area. He brought back students from the south Delhi school at 1pm.

Sources also pointed out that had the school noticed and reported that the bus they had hired had tinted glasses and was driven by an illiterate person involved in an accident, Ram Singh could have been taken off the roads earlier.