University of Hyderabad rape bid: Sniffer dog helps nab goons

HYDERABAD: A sniffer dog helped police nab four juveniles on Saturday for a bid to rape and robbing a student on the

University of Hyderabad

(UoH) campus. A slipper recovered from the crime spot led the Cyberabad police to Gulmohar Park Colony,

Chandanagar

, where the juvenlines in conflict with law were found and taken into custody. Till last reports came in, police were questioning them.

Briefing the media, deputy commissioner of police (

Madhapur

) Vishwa Prasad said the four juveniles had scaled the UoH compound wall to steal copper wires on Friday night. They ran into a 19-year-old girl student and her friend, Praveen Vijay, sitting on a rock at Half Moon lake.

Initially, they tried to grab the victims’ mobile phones and money. When the couple resisted, they attempted to rape her and even tore her dress. Vijay, who tried to thwart their bid, was attacked with sticks and stones. At one point of time, the teens tried to strangle him with a belt. Despite suffering bleeding injuries, Vijay fought back for an hour. By then, the juveniles had snatched mobile phone, money and bike keys.

The victims managed to escape from the clutches of their tormentors and ran for about a kilometre before they alerted the college authorities. The juveniles threatened the girl not to report the offence to anyone. Though the victims went to the lake on a bike, they had to run away from the location as the juveniles snatched aways his motor-cycle keys.

After police reached the spot, they pressed a sniffer dog into service. A slipper of one of the juveniles was recovered by police at the scene of offence as they left the place in hurry. The dog, which was made to sniff the slipper, picked up the trail and went up to Gulmohar Park colony at Chandanagar, and went straight to one of the juveniles.

Police recovered Praveen’s damaged phone from his possession, while three Rs 50 notes were found with the other three juveniles. The incident sent shock waves across the campus and also exposed poor security arrangements on the campus. Police said they would send a notice to the UoH authorities to increase security, patrolling and install more CCTVs on the campus.

During investigation, police discovered that two of the juveniles were habitual offenders. They were earlier involved in robbery and theft cases and were released in the first week of March.

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