Was the accused in the Mohali rape case, Constable Dinesh, known to eyewitness, Mahavir? UT Police are learnt to have procured the mobile phone call details of Mahavir, autorickshaw driver Om Prakash and constables Dinesh and Vijender.

Dinesh and Vijender were remanded in judicial custody today after being produced in court. Police are yet to trace Situ, the third accused in the February 21 rape case. The team that had gone to Rohtak to look for Situ, returned empty-handed. Police claimed to have procured information about Situ and his hideouts. Situ works at an electronics shop in his native village in District Rohtak and is also a small-time property dealer.

The statements recorded by the rape victim, the eyewitness, the auto driver and the accused, meanwhile, seem to be riddled with loopholes. Both the accused were on security duty at the Haryana Raj Bhawan.

Said Station House Officer, Police Station-3, Inspector Ramgopal, “We have procured the mobile phone call details of Mahavir, the auto driver and the accused to verify if Mahavir was actually stopped on his way by a stranger (Constable Dinesh) or were they known to each other. The facts are yet to be verified. The medical report of the victim, too, does not mention any injury marks, nor does the spot show any signs of struggle”.

Some unanswered questions

* The woman and Mahavir were supposed to go back to Phase-VI, Mohali. The Raj Bhawan roundabout is at least a three-kilometre off their route from Rock Garden to Phase-VI, Mohali. When asked about this, Mahavir said, “The autodriver was not aware of the exact route to Mohali Phase-VI, because of which he went that way”. Auto driver Om Prakash, however, told police that he was asked to take that particular route and that Mahavir knew him very well and would always call him whenever he needed an autorickshaw

* Mahavir told police that the incident occurred around 1.30 am. Why did he inform the police control room after an hour and a half?

* Sentries are posted at the entrance gates of the Punjab Raj Bhawan and Haryana Raj Bhawan, merely a 100 metre away from the spot where the autorickshaw was stopped. Did none of the sentries on duty hear or see anything?

* When the woman and Mahavir were being dragged out of the autorickshaw and taken inside the quarter, why did not either of them raise an alarm?