Manali: Three Nepalese accused of raping an American tourist have been remanded to a judicial lock up by a local court after the police had carried out a two day intense custodial interrogation of the crime committed.
Kullu police chief VK Dhawan stated that robbed articles, which consisted of a Nikon camera with a charger, a cell phone charger, a torch, Apple iPhone, and Indian currency was recovered from the three accused persons.
While the camera, phone charger and torch belonging to the gang rape victim was recovered from Lucky, one of the accused, the iPhone was recovered from Arjun, another accused and Rs 5000 cash was recovered from Som Bahadur Tamang was found with the third accused.
The robbed US $ 30 and Thai Bhat 1500 could not be recovered as the accused during investigation are said to have stated that it had been thrown away in some unknown place to avoid identification and police arrest, said the police officer.
The police have firmed up the case with seizure of material and physical evidence collected from the victim’s body by medical experts and well as recovering of stolen goods, and identification of the vehicle used to commit the crime.
Dhawan said that Arjun, Lucky and Som Bahadur Tamang , the three accused in the gang rape case were produced in the court of Kullu Judicial Magistrate today, where the judge remanded them for 14 days in judicial custody.
Sanjay Dutta, an engineer by qualification but is a journalist by choice.
He has worked for the premier new agency Press Trust of India and leading English daily Indian Express.
With more than a decade of experience, he has been highlighting issues related to environment, tourism and other aspects affecting mountain ecology.
Sanjay Dutta lives in a village close to Manali in Kullu valley of Himachal.
The unfortunate incident has brought a bad name not only to Kullu-Manali, but to Himachal Pradesh as a whole. It is the tardy process of law which takes so long to bring the rapists to justice, and instils no fear of punishment . Had such cases been decided post haste , awarding exemplary punishment, perhaps that would have reduced to some extent the incidence of such crimes.Who will call Himachal a Devbhoomi, when we are hell bent on turning it into a Danav-bhoomi. However, the Police have done a wonderful job, apprehending the culprits in the shortest possible time.