SURAT: The investigation into the alleged gang-rape of an 18-year-old girl gathered pace after police recovered one of the missing pages of the victim’s diary.
The girl was gang-raped on November 2 in Vadodara. Later, her body was found hanging inside a coach of the Gujarat Queen Express in Valsad November 4.
The police found a photo of one of the pages of the diary from the mobile phone of a woman employee of the Vadodara-based institute where the victim was working as an intern. The mobile phone of the employee along with that of her few colleagues, the victim’s roommates and her brother were sent for forensic investigation by the cops.
In her diary, which was earlier recovered by the cops, the victim had mentioned that she was sexually assaulted by an autorickshaw driver and his aide at the Vaccine Institute Ground in Vadodara. But some pages of the diary were mysteriously missing.
During the initial investigation it came to fore that the mentor of the institute had sent images of a few pages of the victim’s diary to her seniors. Sources said that during questioning, the mentor told the cops that many of the staff members were on a trip to Jammu & Kashmir during the period when the rape incident happened. After being informed by the mentor, the senior officials of the institute asked her to send photos of diary pages and injuries suffered by the victim.
The mentor sent the photos to one of the female employees who in turn forwarded them to the seniors. The photos were later deleted as instructed by the seniors, the mentor said. Police immediately called the other woman employee and found a picture of one of the torn diary pages in her mobile, sources said. The employee’s mobile phone was seized by the cops.
Also, police also came to know that the institute allows only one mobile phone for a group of four girls. The mobile phone which the victim shared with her roommates was also seized. Investigation also revealed that the victim didn’t use a mobile phone. She had borrowed her brother’s phone when she left her home saying she was going to Maroli.
Meanwhile, police are again questioning 54 autorickshaw drivers whose mobile location was in the same area when the incident of rape happened. Police are also questioning people like milkmen, vegetable vendors and others who operate in the area where the victim was living in Vadodara.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
