Once bitten, twice shy Mumbai police on Thursday afternoon heaved a sigh of relief as one of the accused in the photojournalist rape case — who was feared “missing” earlier in the day – was traced to Thane Central Jail.
less than a week after a key Indian Mujahideen operative Afzal Usmani escaped from the police custody at a special MCOCA court, the Mumbai police once again found themselves in an embarrassing situation when they could not satisfactorily explain to the city court as to the whereabouts of Siraj Rehman Khan, one of the five accused in the photojournalist rape case.
The city police, who were in the normal course had to produce all the four accused — Siraj Rehaman Khan, Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Salim Ansari — produced only three of the accused before the court of Principal Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi, while Siraj was “missing”.
All the three accused, whom the city crime branch sleuths produced in the court, were in police custody, while Siraj was in judicial custody.The judge asked Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam as to where Siraj was. Nikam said that Siraj was “untraceable” in Thane Central Jail where he had been lodged in judicial custody.
Even on Monday last when the court held its first hearing after the city police filed its charge sheet against four accused in the metropolitan court, the police had produced only three accused before the court. They had told the judge that they could not produce Siraj, as he was in Thane Jail in judicial custody in some other case. The judge had then issued a warrant for Khan directing Thane Jail officials to produce him on Thursday.
Following a submission made Nikam before the court that Siraj was “missing” from the Thane central prison and a statement to the same effect made to mediapersons outside the court, the television channels went to town, saying Siraj had disappeared from the Thane Central jail, causing acute anxiety to the Mumbai police and the Thane jail administration.
However, in what came as a major relief to the Mumbai police less than two hours after the events unfolded, Deputy Inspector General Swati Sathe clarified that Siraj was very much in Thane central prison.
Sources in the Thane jail said that the administration there had not received a warrant from the court for production of Siraj in the court.
Informed sources said that confusion arose after the warrant issued by the court mentioned that Siraj was in the custody of the city crime branch sleuhs, where as the fact remained he was in judicial custody and very much lodged at the Thane central prison.
Principal Judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi directed the Thane Central Prison authorities to produce Siraj in the city sessions court on Friday.
Earlier on Monday, the principal judge, who would be presiding over the trial, had told the Prosecution that since the matter was being fast tracked, the trial would be completed within 60 days. The court further held that the trial in the case would run on regular basis.
The five accused have been charged under the new IPC rape section 376 D (gang rape) modified after the Delhi gang rape (The Criminal law (Amendment) Act 2013), which prescribes 20 years’ imprisonment or a maximum of life term and fine to the offenders, sections 341, 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of IPC, sections 201 (destruction of evidence), 377 (unnatural sex), and 120-b (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code. If found guilty under section 120-b, the accused face death penalty.
While the four accused are being tried in a city session court, the “minor” accused in the case is set to face a simultaneous trial in the juvenile justice court.
The 22-year-old photo-journalist, working for a Mumbai events listing magazine, was gang-raped on the evening of August 22 by five men in the cover of tall grass and shrubs surrounding the dilapidated remains of the defunct Shakti Mills at Mahalaxmi in south-central Mumbai, where she had gone along with her male colleague to take pictures for a magazine story.The city police arrested all five accused in the case within 72 hours of the crime.