Irfan’s house in Zirakpur. Express Irfan’s house in Zirakpur. Express

Mohammed Irfan, 29, the auto driver arrested on Friday for the November 17 gangrape of a 21-year-old woman, was identified by her in the presence of a deputed magistrate at Model Burail Jail on Saturday.

The victim identified Irfan out of the 10 persons paraded before her. Sources said the woman took hardly a few seconds to pick out Irfan as the person who had sexually assaulted her. She was escorted into the jail premises by a women police party around 11 am.

Inspector Nasbir Singh, Station House Officer of Sector 36 Police Station, said, “As the victim has identified the accused Irfan, we have filed an application to obtain his custody on production warrants. We will take him into police custody for further interrogation and to ascertain the whereabouts of the two co-accused in a day or two.”

Irfan was remanded in judicial custody on Friday night with a special request that he would be produced before the victim for the identification parade. The ghastly crime shook Chandigarh. The police took a week to make the first arrest in the case after a massive manhunt. The other two men, who perpetrated the crime, are missing from their Zirakpur homes.

Police sources said the initial interrogation of Irfan had revealed on Friday that he along with two other accused – Garib, 22, and Poppu, 23 – had been drinking in Zirakpur while sitting in the auto and later came to Chandigarh and again bought a quarter bottle of liquor from an alcohol vend at Sector 37 on November 17.

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Sources said Irfan claimed during interrogation that it was the idea of the other two that they should pick up the first woman they saw, drive off with her in the auto to a secluded spot and force her into sex. Irfan is supposed to have told the police that he just went along with the plan.

A visit to the locality in Zirakpur where the three were living revealed that Irfan was a troublemaker and occasionally indulged in heated arguments with his wife and the people of his locality in inebriated condition. Garib, 22, and Poppu, 23, two accomplices of Irfan, fled from their houses the very next day of the crime on November 18.

Saleem, one of Irfan’s neighbours, said, “Irfan could also have escaped the very next day but his wife was expecting to deliver and so he could not. Garib was recently married and he ran away with his wife. Poppu was unmarried. Irfan, Garib and Poppu had been working together for a long time. Earlier, Irfan had also worked as a labourer like Garib and Poppu at various godowns and later he started driving auto. These days, he was in the process of purchasing an auto.”

Irfan’s wife Shanna said, “I remember my husband Irfan returning home on the night of November 18 along with two other persons. He never drinks in front of me but I know he does. My husband is the youngest among three brothers and his two elder brothers stay in UP.”

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