Four held for US woman’s gang-rape

New Delhi, Dec 26 (IANS) Four persons, including a tourist guide, have been arrested here on charges of sexually assaulting a US tourist here in March this year, police said on Monday.

Aniruddha Singh, a Nepal-based tourist guide, Omprakash, Maqsood and Vivek -- all in their late 20s were arrested from different cities during raids conducted by Delhi Police on separate occasions.

"On the complaint of a Delhi-based NGO, we contacted the victim and filed a case on the basis of her statement. During our inquiry, we conducted several raids in Delhi and other cities and arrested four persons," Joint Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak told IANS.

Pathak said that police registered the case just two hours after the victim gave a statement through email. "We investigated the case professionally and recorded the victim's statement last week when she arrived in Delhi from America. We analyzed the case and re-examined the sequence of crime with the victim," he said.

Among the other accused, Omprakash was a driver, Maqsood a helper and Vivek a bellboy at the hotel where the crime occurred. Police initially identified Vivek by the duty register of room service as he was first to enter the victim's room on the day of crime, police said.

Initially, police could not get much leads as the CCTV cameras were not installed at the floor where the victim's room was, police said.

The 30-year-old American tourist was gang-raped at a luxury hotel in March this year.

Delhi Police had registered an FIR early this month on the complaint of the woman as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj intervened in the matter.

Meanwhile the victim's advocate Mritunjay, who had earlier said that both he and his client were unhappy with the status of the probe, told IANS that he was still "not happy" with police's efforts.

"There is a delay in arrests even as the accused were identified by police in the initial days (after the complaint). The accused persons should have been arrested earlier. There were five accused as per my client's statement in the case and the fifth one is moving free now."