The Bangalore police have arrested six persons in connection with the gangrape of a 20-year-old Nepali student of the National Law School of India University on the night of October 13 on the campus of the Bangalore University, according to The Indian Express.

The Indian newspaper quoted Bangalore Police Commissioner Jyoti Prakash Mirji as saying that six of the eight persons accused in the gangrape that occurred while the law student was in a car with a friend were nabbed from tribal settlements in the Ramanagaram district and Mattaradoddigudda areas located in the Bangalore rural district.

The arrested persons have been identified as Mallesh, Maddura, Doddahiraiah, Shivanna, Eraiah, and Yeliyayya, it said, adding that two others, identified as Rama and Raja, who were part of the group that arrived by bus on October 13 to the forest surrounding the Bangalore University to cut wood on the campus were yet to be arrested.

All of the accused belong to a tribal community known as Iruligas who have settlements on the outskirts of Bangalore. “The six persons were cutting wood illegally for sale and came to the university in search of sandalwood on the night of the crime,” Mirji said.

The gang stumbled upon the girl and her friend around 9.30 pm on October 13 while they were in their car at a secluded spot on the campus.

“The description of the attackers and of the axes, knives and sticks in their possession given by the victim provided the first hint of their possible identities,” a senior police officer said.

Published on: 22 October 2012 | The Kathmandu Post