Bengaluru: Police have succeeded in cracking the Mysuru gang-rape case, Karnataka home minister Araga Jnanendra said on Saturday, August 28.
Initially declining comment on reports that had noted that four or five people had been taken into custody in connection with the incident, the home minister later confirmed that as many had been arrested.
“Five people have been arrested. Our police team has exhibited efficiency. I thank our police,” Jnanendra said, according to ANI.
ANI also quoted Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood as having said that the five are from Tamil Nadu. “As per preliminary probe, one of the accused is juvenile, subject to confirmation, it’ll be known from further probe. One accused is absconding,” Sood reportedly told ANI.
Five arrested in connection with the incident. As per reports they’re from Tamil Nadu. As per preliminary probe, one of the accused is juvenile (subject to confirmation), it’ll be known from further probe. One accused is absconding: Praveen Sood, Karnataka DGP on Mysuru gang rape
— ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2021
Earlier, Chief Minister Basavaraj S. Bommai said he is confident that the police would crack the case as early as possible and apprehend the culprits.
Bommai said five police teams are investigating the case. “Police have taken the Mysuru case very seriously,” he told reporters here. “I am confident that the police will succeed in cracking the case as early as possible”.
The victim, a college student studying in Mysuru, was gang-raped near Chamundi foothills on the outskirts of Mysuru on August 24. A friend who was with her was assaulted by the gang.
The gang-members had allegedly demanded Rs three lakh from them in exchange for not making the video of the rape public, PTI reported quoting unnamed police sources.
DG & IGP of Karnataka Praveen Sood is supervising the investigation into the gang-rape which has sparked massive outrage.
‘Follow Hyderabad’
Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy on Friday appeared to suggest that Karnataka police deal with the rapists of a the college student, the same way police in Telangana did nearly two years ago when the rapists of a vet who was also murdered were shot dead by police.
The four alleged rapists had burnt alive the veterinarian at Shamshabad in the Telangana capital in 2019. Days after they were captured, the accused were taken to the crime scene. Telangana police claims they were shot while they attempted to escape but an inquiry commission, appointed by the Supreme Court is investigating this claim.
Speaking to reporters in Chennapatna, the former chief minister said, “I appreciate what the Hyderabad police did in dealing with a rape case. What did they do finally? Unless stringent action is taken things will not improve.”
Amid outrage over the gang-rape, Karnataka minister Anand Singh who had earlier said that the couple should not have gone to the deserted spot, said: “Everything of the perpetrators should be chopped off.”
The Karnataka home minister had said August 26, that the Mysuru gang-rape survivor and her friend should not have ventured to a deserted place and that the Congress was trying to “rape” him by politicising the issue.