Mumbai gang rape: Second accused arrested
Mumbai: A second accused in the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old photojournalist was on Saturday arrested from south Mumbai even as police launched a manhunt for three others in the case.
According to Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, more than 20 teams, including 10 from the elite Crime Branch, have been formed to track down the perpetrators amid mounting public pressure and anger.
Singh on Friday said police were trying to gather ‘clinching evidence’ to ensure that the culprits get maximum punishment for the ‘shocking crime’.
The victim, an intern with an English magazine was gang-raped allegedly by five men on Thursday evening when she and her male colleague went to the deserted Shakti Mills compound in Lower Parel area for taking photographs in connection with a story on city chawls.
The five accused, whose sketches were released on Friday, tied up the victim’s friend and raped the woman in a chilling reminder of the December gang-rape in Delhi.
The young scribe, who resides in western suburbs, has been admitted to Jaslok Hospital and is said to be ‘composed and stable’. Preliminary reports suggested that she sustained multiple internal injuries.
“We cannot give you any further information keeping in mind patient confidentiality,” Dr Tarang Gianchandani, acting CEO and Director (Medical Services) of Jaslok had said on Friday. “We are doing the needful… she is under strict observation.”
Condemning the assault, journalists took to streets to lodge protest. Scribes from various streams, sporting black bands on their arms and mouths, gathered in large numbers at Hutatma Chowk in south Mumbai demanding that at all necessary steps be taken to ensure that safety and security of journalists and common citizens is not compromised.
