Rape accused calls IGP, owns up crime
You have identified me. I am responsible for this act. I know you won’t spare me.” This short and to-the-point call was made to IGP (Western Range) Pratap Reddy by Yogesh Poojary, one of the three suspects in the Manipal rape case. He made the confession call soon after attempting to commit suicide. Though Poojary was on the police radar for some time, he chose to out himself by making a call to the IGP. The call was traced to a wooded area on the fringes of Manipal.
The police traced the call to a wooded area at Athrady, about 3km from Manipal, where they found Yogesh. Hariprasad was nabbed after Yogesh gave clues about his associates.
According to information police gleaned from the accused, it was not a premeditated crime. Last Thursday night, the three men were drunk and went on a joyride through the Manipal campus and chanced upon the victim. The auto, driven by Hariprasad, was registered in his brother’s name. The auto is a Bajaj two-stroke rearengine vehicle.
The IGP said: “We had checked this auto too. It’s like any other auto and didn’t raise any suspicion. Moreover, the description we got from the victim that it had a Ganesha idol with a light and that it was slightly damaged proved to be wrong. The auto had an idol of Radha and Krishna and there was no light.” “We did not have the time to question the accused properly. According to preliminary investigations, they abducted and sexually assaulted the student.” Asked if the victim knew any of the accused, the IGP said none of the accused had confirmed this.
Providential breakthrough – IGP
Pratap Reddy received a call around 10am Thursday from an unknown number. “The person told me: ‘You have identified me. I am responsible for this act. I know you won’t spare me’,” the IGP said. Reddy said the person (Yogesh) went on speaking about the incident and other things for about 26 minutes, and at the end of the call, said he was committing suicide.
“Even as he was talking over the phone, I could make out he was having trouble speaking, and could also hear sounds of vomiting. I guessed he may have consumed something poisonous, so the teams which were in the vicinity were rushed to the spot,” he said.
“We rushed him to KMC Hospital, Manipal. He’s in a critical condition. We’ve got a preliminary statement from him, according to which all of them sexually assaulted the girl. But we have to verify it from the other persons. We still haven’t been able to reconstruct the scene. After talking to him,we’ll reconstruct the event,” Reddy added.
Wrong clues
Reddy said: “None of the accused sports a French beard. The idol in the autorickshaw was also different than what we were looking for. We were 99% sure of one spot. But after the preliminary investigation we found we were wrong,” said the IGP. Yogesh, according to TV media reports, reportedly filmed the sexual assault on his mobile phone.However, police officials have neither confirmed nor denied it. Police added that Yogesh had dropped the victim near the apartment where she stayed.
