Of the eight teams formed to investigate the case, about three were exclusively tasked with interrogating auto drivers, according to Superintendent of Police M B Boralingaiah.
Hunt continues
However, three unidentified men, accused of abducting and allegedly gang-raping a 22-year-old medical student, are still at large despite a massive search operation by the state police.
"We are on the job and doing our best to trace the culprits and locate the auto-rickshaw in which the victim was abducted from outside her college library that (June 20) night and driven to a secluded spot where the crime was committed," Mr. Boralingaiah said.
"We are probing the case from all angles. As we are unable to get details about the incident from the victim as she is still recovering from injury and the trauma she went through, we are following leads we got during the investigation," he said.
As part of the investigation, police have checked about 3,000 of about 8,000 auto-rickshaws that ply at Manipal, Udupi and surrounding villages and questioned hundreds of auto drivers for information, as one of the three accused is suspected to be an auto driver.
"We have also alerted our counterparts in Mangalore and other towns in the neighbouring districts to look out for an old auto involved in the crime, as its light was damaged and had a small god's idol in it, as hinted by the victim," the police officer said.
Police registered a criminal case Friday against the three unidentified accused, including an auto driver under sections 366 and 376 (abduction and rape) read with 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on a complaint by the victim to the local police station.
The incident occurred when the victim, a fourth-year student of the Kasturba Medical College, was waiting to hire an auto outside the Manipal University campus gate to return to her flat from the library late Thursday around 11.30 p.m.
"The victim said in the complaint that she was abducted by the accused, driven to an isolated spot and gang-raped after midnight. Though she managed to reach her flat later, she gave the complaint early Friday," Boralingaiah recalled.
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