Three women and one minor girl, were gang-raped by 7 criminals of the Vedwa gang near Hansalpur village of Viramgam taluka. These tribal families lived in shanties in the city outskirts.
Crimes across state
The gang has confessed to around 40 crimes across the state. These include the murder of a police constable in Vadodara city; and gang rapes in Sanand, Aslali, Vadodara and Mehsana. The number of crimes in which the gang was involved in different places is as follows: A’bad district — 4 cases; Mehsana — 5 cases; Banaskantha — 07, Patan — 1; A’bad city — 1; Vadodara district — 9; Surat — 4; Sabarkantha — 1; Godhra — 2; Kheda — 4, & G’nagar — 2.
They were part of a 7-member gang which raped three tribal women and a minor girl
Even the police are shocked to learn that a father and his sons had together raped women and indulged in other crimes. In fact, the Vedhwa gang had raped as many as nine women in three different incidents. “This is the first time that the police have investigated a crime in which gang-rapes were committed by members of just one family,” said RB Bhrambhatt, inspector general of police, Ahmedabad range. The police had found that Keshu, Chanu and Shiva were brothers and had formed a gang with their sons for dacoity, gang-rape, loot and murder in the state. So far, however, Shiva is not named in any crime. Talking to reporters, district superintendent of police, Ahmedabad (rural) Gagandeep Gambhir said that the five arrested men had confessed to as many as 40 different crimes.
Gambhir further said that police teams from the local crime branch had nabbed the criminals when they had gathered for a puja in their family.
“They are originally residents of Saida village of Botad tauka (in Bhavnagar district) but had been living a nomadic life to avoid arrest,” Gambhir said.
Police teams had searched for them at Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Vadodara, Mahesana and Ahmedabad but they were arrested from Sanand Chowkdi while going to Botad from Radhanpur.
