According to the police, the five accused were remorseless after committing the crime. Massive manhunt on for the other two absconding suspects
Mumbai gangrape: Complete coverage
ADVERTISEMENT
The Mumbai police on Saturday stepped up a gear and arrested two more men accused of raping the 22-year-old journalist inside a dilapidated mill in Mahalaxmi. The two men, identified as Siraj Rehman (20) and Vijay Mohan Jadhav (18) were arrested less than a day after the cops nabbed the first accused, Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh. Jadhav was arrested in the wee hours on Saturday while Rehman was arrested later in the evening from Mahalaxmi. All three are accused of taking turns to rape the woman and bashing up her male colleague.
A massive manhunt has been launched across the city for the two other accused. According to police officials, the two, Saleem and Kasim Bangali are the main accused in this case with the latter being the mastermind. The cops have also found out that Jadhav, a school dropout is the son of a BMC employee and stays in Dhobi Talao. His family also has a house in Virar. He is a history-sheeter and has been arrested in the past for theft and robbery.
Remorseless, they slept through the night
According to Jadhav, on the day of the crime, he met co-accused Saleem, a drug addict, for a smoke and entered Shakti Mill, their usual hunting ground. While they were on their way, they came across the two journalists who asked them for directions to the mill.
“Saleem showed them the way and after they went a little ahead, he called up Kasim Bangali and asked him to come to the mill compound along with Siraj and Ashraf. After they met, they approached the victims and started talking to them about several murders that had taken place in the area. Before the victims could react, one of them broke a bottle and put the sharp edges of the glass on the woman’s neck,” said an officer. “They took her behind a wall and tied her up with the help of a rope. While four men held the male journalist down, each of the men took turns to rape the woman,” added the officer.
According to the police, the five accused behaved as if nothing had happened after committing the crime. In fact, all of them slept over at Jadhav Dhobi Talao’s residence and next morning when they learnt that the police were hunting for them, they parted ways and escaped. “But Siraj and Jadhav were together throughout the day and even met in the evening to smoke up at Agripada,” said an officer. Jhadav then went to a video parlour and watched movies for the rest of the evening. When the cops closed in on Jadhav after a tip off that he was at a video parlour in Agripada, they found him sleeping inside the parlour.