A 21-year-old woman was gang-raped by three unidentified men. The accused attacked the woman after tying her male friend to a tree in the desolate Bopdev Ghat area in the outskirts of Pune late on Thursday night. 

The victim, said to be a college student hailing from Gujarat, is being treated at the State-run Sassoon General Hospital in Pune.

The attack took place around 11 pm in the poorly lit and secluded area of Bopdev Ghat. The police came to know about the incident around 5 am on Friday.

With the incident having sparked a major public uproar in Pune, the local police swiftly arrested one person, a 36-year-old resident from Pune’s Kondhwa area, in connection with the incident and launched a hunt for the two remaining suspects. 

The Pune police have formed 10 teams from the Crime and Detection branches to look out for the two remaining suspects. On Friday evening, the police released the sketches of two of the three suspects involved in the alleged gang-rape. The sketches were drawn on the basis of a statement made by the victim girl to the police at the hospital.

Talking to media persons, Pune’s Additional Commissioner of Police Ranjan Kumar Sharma said, “As per preliminary details, the woman and her male friend had gone to the Bopdev Ghar area on late Thursday night where three unidentified persons allegedly raped her”.

The preliminary investigations have revealed that three suspects, posing as activists,  approached the victim and her friend in a car. They asked the couple what they were doing in that “prohibited” area. They also took photographs of the couple.

After threatening them with dire consequences, one of the suspects forced the girl into a car. They tied the young man to a tree, and took turns to rape the young woman inside the car. The suspects also assaulted the victim’s friend before fleeing the crime scene.

The injured young man managed to take the victim to the Sassoon General Hospital for treatment. A complaint was lodged with the Kondhwa police Station at around 5 am on Friday.

Happening as it did in the run-up to the State Assembly polls, the incident has snowballed into a political controversy.   

In his sharp reaction to the incident,  NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar said: “On one hand, we have the Ladki Behan Yojana announced by the BJP-led government, while on the other hand there are atrocities on women. On one hand, there is an attempt to provide financial assistance to women through the Ladki Behan Yojana and on the other hand, there is a lot of anger among the people due to the increasing atrocities on women.”

Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar said: “Ahead of the State Assembly  polls, the Chief Minister and two Deputy Chief Ministers are engaged in branding themselves as Bhai, Bhau and Dada. And on the other hand, in the last two days, shocking incidents of abuse of women have come to light in Pune”.

Wadettiwear’s “Bhai, Bhau and Dada” comment was made in apparent reference to chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. Fadnavis is the state Home Minister,  while Ajit Pawar is the state Finance Minister and Guardian Minister of Pune.

“Unfortunately, I am constrained to say that Maharashtra is not safe for women. The government should arrest the accused in the said incident and take strict action against them,”  the NCP (SP)’s national working president and Baramati MP Supriya Sule said.

Meanwhile, local people said that  a young woman who had gone for a stroll in Bopdev Ghat earlier this week had been threatened and molested by a person claiming to be a human rights activist.

The Forum for IT Employees Maharashtra said in a social media message that an IT couple was attacked on the Nande-Lawale road in Hinjewadi recently around 1 am, and has urged for a police check-post in the vicinity.

“We request all to take note of this and avoid travelling late on this road which connects Tamini Ghat, Lawasa to the IT Park,” said the cautionary, tagging the Pune Police, the DGP and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

The gang-rape comes in the wake of  an alleged sexual assault of two six-year old girls by a school-van driver in Wanwadi area who was arrested on Thursday.