MYSURU: Five accused, arrested for the alleged gangrape of a girl student at the foothills of Chamundi on August 24 evening, revealed to the Mysuru police that they regularly targeted couples, lonely women and others moving around Lalithadripura area.
They assaulted men, molested women, and took away their valuables. They had become fearless and proceeded to gangrape the girl as none of the couples they targeted earlier had filed police complaints.
Four police teams, which consisted of men who could converse in Tamil, conducted an 11-hour operation at Susipuram in Talavadi district and Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu before arresting them.
The accused were produced before the third JMFC court judge, who remanded them under police custody.
During the interrogation, they told the police that seven of them were involved in the crime.
The Mysuru police are still camping at Tiruppur and other locations looking for two more accused.
One of them is involved in a sandalwood theft in Mysuru, while the other is wanted for a murder in Erode district.
The police, who are interrogating the five at an undisclosed location, found out that they not only visited Mysuru for pleasure but also to make away with valuables, like cellphones, jewellery and cash from couples moving around motorbikes near Chamundi Hills.
It is said that one of the accused had the habit of molesting women, while others took away the valuables.
The gang regularly bought liquor at the APMC yard in Bandipalya and then reached the foothills of Chamundi looking for targets.
They also admitted to committing robberies on the ring road.
They told the police that in the gangrape case too, they were certain that the girl would not file a complaint like their earlier victims.
But the girl’s friend and his parents informed the police and got the medico-legal case registered.
A team of experts has arrived in Mysuru to conduct a medical examination and collect samples of the accused at the Forensic Lab in Karnataka Police Academy.
The victim, who has gone back to Mumbai with her parents, is yet to come out of shock and give a statement to the police, which has to be mandatorily produced before the court.
The police, who have registered an FIR based on a statement given by her friend, hope that she will cooperate once she is stable.
The FSL team, based on the medical check-up carried out at a private hospital, has also collected DNA samples.
The investigative team is likely to take the accused to the crime scene at Lalithadripura in Alanahalli police limits on Monday.
Though a lot of people, especially girls, are visiting the spot where the gangrape took place, the police are trying to avoid crowds at the spot.
City-based artists Rahul and Sumanth Gowda on Sunday painted graffiti on Dewan’s road in Devaraja Mohalla warning people about heinous crimes like rape.
They demanded that the accused be hanged.