Kochi: Kerala Police have decided to conduct a detailed inquiry into the criminal antecedents of the four accused held in the Kochi gang rape case in which budding model from Kasaragod was assaulted sexually for close to an hour in a running car by three youths.
The Ernakulam ACJM Court remanded all the four accused — Rajasthan native Dimple Lamba (Doli, 21), who is the friend of the 19-year-old victim, and Kadungalloor natives Vivek Sudhakaran (26), Nidhin Meghanathan (35) and T R Sudeep (34), to 14-days judicial custody. The investigation team will approach the court, seeking their custody to shed light on several missing links in the case, today.
The three youths are friends of the other accused, Dimple. The probe has found out that the victim didn't know the youths and was taken to a bar at Atlantis Junction by her acquaintance Dimple, who is also into modelling.
The cops suspect that the shocking crime was pre-planned. According to police, the accused spiked her beer with some powder and then took her in a car in the guise of dropping her at her residence in Kakanad. “The victim told us that she suspects some drugs were mixed into her drinks at the bar. More investigation is needed on this, including the role of Dimple, who will be interrogated further,” sources said.
The investigation team will conduct a detailed probe into the criminal antecedents of all four arrested. This after it emerged that Nidhin was one of the five accused in a case relating to threatening a Kodungaloor-based trader by brandishing a gun while asking him to hand over money.
“We’re collecting more details of it. A detailed probe will be held on the criminal antecedents of the accused and whether they were involved in any other cases,” the sources added.
The cops are also investigating whether the accused had consumed drugs at the time of the incident. They have sent blood samples of the accused for testing. Further action in this regard will be taken after obtaining the test report.
The sleuths are also collecting CCTV footage from the bar where the DJ party was held. They already received the visuals that show the accused and the victim arriving at the at the bar on Thursday night.
“We’re trying to collect the CCTV footage from various parts of the city which shows the accused travelling in the car during the night of the horrific crime taking the victim along,” the sources said.
The shocking incident happened on Thursday night. According to the case, the victim reached the bar along with her friend Dimple, whom she knew for a long as both were into modeling. The three youths joined them after Dimple called them over the phone and asked them to drop in. They reportedly laced the beer with drugs as the survivor fell on the verge of collapsing. The three youths then took her on a case in the guise of dropping her at her residence in Kakkanad, while Dimple excused herself. The trio then gang-raped her in the running car for close to 45 minutes.
Finally, Dimple was picked up when the youths returned to the bar with the vehicle after the incident. The survivor was then dropped off at her residence in Kakkanad. The victim sought treatment at a hospital on Friday morning when the police got to know about the shocking incident.
