One of the accused in police custody.

GURUGRAM: Yogender, Amit and Jaykesh. These are the three men, all between 20 and 25 years old, who killed an eight-month-old baby and raped her 19-year-old mother in Gurugram on May 29, a crime that has provoked such widespread shock, horror and outrage for its sheer savagery.

Yogender and Amit were arrested on Wednesday after a massive search operation, Yogender from the same Manesar village where the woman lives and Amit from the Delhi-Gurugram border later in the evening. All three are from Bulandshahr and have been sharing a tenement in the Manesar village, right behind the sarpanch ’s office, doing odd jobs like driving autos and transporting goods to earn a living. They did not, however, know the woman. Police were conducting searches in the Uttar Pradesh district for Jaykesh when last reports came in.

“We will nab the third accused soon and ensure speedy justice to the woman,” police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar said. “The accused are not just guilty of rape but also murder of the child and we will not let them get off easily,” he added.

Police said Jaykesh was driving the vehicle used to kidnap the woman — a leased Magic van, not a shared auto, as was believed earlier. The trio had offered the 19-year-old a lift on NH-8 near the toll plaza in Kherki Daula late on May 29 when she was on her way to her in-laws’ place in Old Gurgaon with her eight-month-old daughter.

With public transport virtually absent, she had agreed. But instead of driving to Old Gurgaon, Jaykesh took a U-turn and drove back to Manesar, deep inside the industrial township, up to Sector 8 where the three took turns to rape the woman and kill her daughter. Khirwar said on Wednesday the baby had died of asphyxiation. She choked because one or the other of the three men continuously had his hands on its mouth to stop her from bawling. Before they drove away in the van, they had flung the baby, which had died by then, on the concrete road divider.

Police said the three fled to Bulandshahr after that. But late night on June 2, Yogender and Amit returned to their Manesar house for a recce. The delay in the police investigation, which began in earnest almost a week after the woman filed her complaint on May 30, probably lulled them into a sense of comfort. They stayed back and started getting back to their daily routine.

But in a couple of days, as police realised their mistake and visited the village, Yogender and Amit panicked. News reports followed. The two then decided to confess before sarpanch (village chief) Ajit Chauhan on Wednesday morning. This is where two parallel lines of investigation crossed. At one point during her account of events that night, the rape survivor had told the cops she had heard the three men discussing the sarpanch was known to them and would save them, police said.

When Yogender and Amit came to him, the sarpanch already knew a manhunt was on for them and informed the cops. Yogender was picked up around 11am. Amit had sensed danger and managed to flee but was tracked down and arrested in Sirhaul in the evening. “The village headman informed cops that the accused had returned after committing the crime,” said an investigating officer.

Chauhan told TOI, “The two accused came to my office around 10.30 on Wednesday and confessed. They sought my help. I asked them to wait for some time and informed ACP Dharmbeer Singh. Within 10 minutes, police reached the spot and arrested Yogender.”



In Video: Gurugram horror: All 3 accused arrested