Shaikh Salim, who was arrested in Mumbai, was delivered to West Bengal on transit remand and produced earlier than the Ranaghat subdivisional court docket within the afternoon, the place the CID slapped expenses of rape, extortion, dacoity and theft (IPC Sections 376, 395 and 397) on him.

CID officers and authorized consultants on the court docket stated the cost of rape must be substantiated with medical proof and different forensic proof.

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As per the FIR, there was just one rapist within the gang that broke into the varsity on the night time of March 13-14. Asked if the investigators believed that Shaikh Salim was the person who had assaulted the 71-year-old Sister Superior, and the CID had, due to this fact, accused him underneath Section 376 (rape), DIG Dilip Adak, stated, “Everything needs to be corroborated in further investigation when the accused is taken into police custody.”

Adak additionally declined to substantiate whether or not the arrests on Thursday meant the case had been cracked. “The arrested Shaikh Salim has confessed that he was at the crime scene. It is now to be investigated and verified what role Salim had actually played.”

The DIG stated it was additionally not recognized why the gang of robbers had bodily tortured the septuagenarian nun for over an hour, and left her grievously injured.

Sikandar Shaikh alias Salim was picked up from a jhopar patti on Pirkhana Street in Nagpada, South Mumbai, within the wee hours of Thursday. At 3.05 am, two officers of the West Bengal CID, accompanied by officers of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, swooped on the house of Salim’s pal, the place he was allegedly hiding out.

CID sources stated investigators had reached Salim by monitoring cell phone calls. They had additionally been tipped off by “sources” about a person in Nagpada who resembled one of many suspects whose sketches the CID had put out after the crime. Faces of 4 alleged criminals had been captured clearly by CCTV cameras within the college.

The detectives later launched three extra sketches primarily based on descriptions supplied by the victims on the convent.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria instructed The Indian Express within the morning, “The West Bengal team had the lead, they shared the information with us and sought our assistance. Assistance was provided, and the accused was arrested from the Nagpada area, and has been taken away by the Bengal team.”

The second arrest adopted late within the afternoon, following Salim’s interrogation. A person known as Gopal Sarkar, who lives in Goalbati in Habra, a city near the border with Bangladesh, was picked up after Salim allegedly instructed the CID that Sarkar had hosted the gang at his residence earlier than the raid on the convent.

The CID stated Gopal Sarkar was an unlawful Bangladeshi immigrant who had crossed over in 2002, and had been residing in Habra ever since.
Shaikh Salim too is believed to be a Bangladeshi nationwide, who was staying in Mumbai.

After touchdown in Kolkata from Mumbai, the CID officers took Salim straight from the airport to the court docket in Ranaghat, the place they submitted that Salim had confessed to the crime, however the CID wanted him in custody with a purpose to make materials recoveries and to place him via medical and forensic examination.

The Ranaghat court docket was barricaded for Salim’s manufacturing. No lawyer represented the arrested accused, stated Chandranil Chatterjee, a member of the Bar. The CID described Shaikh Salim as one of many masterminds of the Ranaghat rape and theft case. He could possibly be a Bangladeshi, however his antecedents had been nonetheless being verified, the CID stated. Salim has given the names of different members of the gang, and extra arrests are possible, until the boys have fled to Bangladesh, a CID officer stated.

(With inputs from Rashmi Rajput in Mumbai)