Japanese gangrape case: 3 in police custody, 3 in judicial

KOLKATA: A city court today remanded three persons arrested in connection with the gangrape of a Japanese tourist in police custody till January 16 while sending the other three arrested to judicial custody for the identical period.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S R Pal remanded Javed and Md Shahid, who were arrested from Gaya in Bihar, and a cleaner at Indian Museum here - Mohd Wasim Khan alias Knowledge in police custody on a plea by Kolkata Police.

Three other accused -- Wasim Khan, Md Sabbir Khan and Shahid Iqbal were remanded in judicial custody till January 16 according to the prayer of the prosecution.

A Test Identification Parade of the accused by the alleged victim has already been done.

Wasim, who speaks Japanese fluently, allegedly befriended the woman on November 20 and accompanied her to Gaya in Bihar.

He allegedly molested her and took away Rs 76,000 from her bank account before handing her over to the Khan siblings Javed and Sajid, who allegedly raped her repeatedly since November 26 till the end of December.

Later, they put the girl in a bus bound for Varanasi, where she got in touch with her friends and contacted the Japanese consulate in Kolkata.

Based on the information gathered from Wasim, a joint team of Kolkata Police and Gaya Police arrested the brother duo from Taro village under Fathepur police station in Gaya district on January 2 and brought them to Kolkata on a transit remand.