Meerut:

Two men were arrested on Tuesday while a third is at large and wanted for the alleged kidnap, gang-rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl on National Highway 91 in Bulandshahr on January 2. The arrests come days after police initially dismissed allegations of kidnap and gang-rape made by the victim’s family.

Zulfikar Abbasi and Dilshad, both in their late twenties and residents of Sikandarabad in Bulandshahr, were arrested for the crime, while a third accused, Israil, is absconding. According to police officers, the two men confessed that on the day of the crime, they first watched a film and drank alcohol, after which they set out in a vehicle to kidnap a girl from the highway “for fun”.

“They (the accused) happened to spot the girl, who was returning home from tuition. They dragged her into their car on NH 91, just near the girl’s village of Chandpur. Then they gang-raped and strangled her to death. Later that night, they dumped the body in a canal in Bil Akbarpur village in Greater Noida and fled,” said a police officer.

The car used in the crime, as well as other belongings of the accused, have been seized. While the family of the girl had consistently alleged that she had been kidnapped, gang-raped and murdered, police had at first called it an elopement over a love affair, and denied the kidnap or sexual assault angle. However, later police had given a clean chit to some local youths who had been arrested for the murder, and added sections related to kidnap and gang-rape in the FIR.

CCTV footage from a car showroom nearby had also put the police in a tight spot. The video showed some men waylaying the teen girl, who is seen on her bicycle, and dragging her inside their car, which then speeds away.

Based on the footage, police narrowed down its investigation to a particular brand of car, which was finally located. The licence number of the car, according to officers, is actually of a car of a different model whose owner lives in Faridabad, Haryana, indicating the licence number could have been faked. Dilshad is an unemployed car mechanic, according to officers.

Initially, a case of kidnapping was registered at Kotwali Nagar police station. “Section 302 (murder) was added after post-mortem. Additionally, section 376 D (gang-rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of POCSO Act were added to the FIR after their confession,” said Praveen Ranjan Singh, superintendent of police (city) of Bulandshahr.