KOLKATA: The detective department has arrested a sixth person for the gang rape of a Japanese woman. The accused — a key link between the gang men residing at Fatehpur near Gaya, Kolkata and Mandarmoni near Digha — has been identified as Md Wasim (28), an exhibit cleaner at the Indian Museum. Sources said he was officially designated with the anthropology department.

According to special additional CP (crime) Pallab Kanti Ghosh, the accused was arrested from his residence at A K Mohammed Siddiqui Lane near Park Street on Monday night. “He is the linkman who had handled the movement of the survivor. He was one of the four persons who induced the 23-year-old Japanese researcher to join the gang for a ‘local sight-seeing’ trip to Digha and Mandarmoni and had even travelled with her on November 23 and 24. He was there in Digha when the woman was molested and robbed of Rs 76,000,” said Ghosh.

Sources said Wasim had returned to Kolkata with the woman and then assured her that the molestation was “not intended”. Knowing that the Japanese woman was keen to visit Bodh Gaya, the accused used his Museum credentials and promised her that this time he would drive the car himself. Wasim then drove the woman to Fatehpur, about 45 km off Gaya, and then tricked her in to entering the residence of the two accused brothers — Javed Khan and Sajid Khan. Even as the Khan brothers kept her confined for two weeks and gang-raped her, Wasim returned to Kolkata. “Since no crime was committed in Kolkata, the gang members thought they would get away scot free completely negating the fact that the entire plot was hatched here,” said a source. Wasim’s name had reportedly figured in the rape of a bar employee recently, but he managed to give cops a slip. Always moving on a red bike, he was the “closest” friend of prime accused Sabbir.

Police are also on the lookout for three more persons, one in Kolkata and two in Bihar.

