Grief-stricken parents of rape accused lock themselves up

Saryug Singh, father of Delhi gangrape accused Akshay Thakur, has locked himself in his house along with his wife with security men deputed outside saying they hear frequent wails from inside since the victim's death.

Thakur, one of the six accused, was arrested by a joint team of Delhi and Bihar police from his house in Lahankarma.

Loud cries keep coming from inside the house, Raju Kumar Paswan, who has been deputed at Thakur's house for security since Saturday evening fearing angry backlash over the death of the 23-year-old Delhi gangrape victim, told PTI.

"My head hangs in shame," Singh was quoted as saying by Paswan.

"If he is guilty, God will punish him," he said referring to his son Akshay, son of a marginal farmer, studied in government school at Tandwa till matriculation before leaving for Chhattisgarh to work in some brew factory. He had landed in Delhi a year ago.

Babloo Pandey, a neighbour, said the entire village is seething with anger and remorse over involvement of one of the natives of the village in the barbaric incident.

"We demand death sentence for the culprits for such animal like act," Pandey said.

Pandey, himself a farmer and whose piece of land is near that of Saryug Singh, said that Singh appeared "lost" most of the times.

"He (Saryug Singh) is not being able to concentrate on farming. Many a time cattle graze his field in front of him but he does nothing to chase them away from damaging crops...he is lost most of the time," Pandey said.

Ajay Kumar, Officer in-Charge of Tandwa police station said two chowkidars have been deputed at Thakur's house since last evening.

Safalta Singh and Priti Kumari of neighbouring Dhamini village demanded death sentence for Thakur and other five accused in the gangrape case.

Meanwhile, different students organisations observed bandh in the Nabinagar, block headquarter under which Lahankarma village is located about 125 km from Patna, over the death of the girl.

Widespread protests were witnessed in Patna too.

 Expressing sorrow over the death of the girl, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar cancelled his trip to Rajgir mahotsav at famous tourist spot in his native Nalanda district on Saturday.