Having arrested the third accused in the shocking gang-rape of a 22-year-old photojournalist, the Mumbai Police on Saturday night launched a manhunt for the two absconding rapists in the case, even as the grandmother of the man who was arrested on Friday claimed that he was a minor.
Identifying the third accused arrested in the case as Siraj Rehman (25), the police said that they zeroed in on Siraj at Govandi in north-east Mumbai, when he was about to flee from the metropolis. “We questioned him and placed him under arrest. We will produce him before a city court on Sunday,” a senior police officer said.
In a pre-dawn swoop on a video parlour at Madanpura, the city police on Saturday arrested the second of the five men accused of raping the woman. The two arrested accused — Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh, alias Mohammed Abdul, and Vijay Mohan Jadhav — were separately produced before a city court, which remanded them in police custody till August 30.
While Chand had been arrested around noon on Friday, Jadhav was traced to a video parlour at Mandanpura in south Mumbai by the city Crime Branch sleuths who arrested him in the early hours of Saturday. With these arrests, the total number of persons taken into custody in connection with Thursday’s gang-rape has gone up to three.
The police said that Chand was earlier misleading the police about the fifth accused by telling them that his name was Ashfaque alias Prince. “We picked up several people with that alias. However, today, he confessed that there was no Ashfaque and his friend’s name was Siraj Rehman. Based on the details, we picked up Siraj from Govandi when he was about to flee from Mumbai, questioned and arrested him,” the police officer said.
The investigators are looking for two more of their accomplices, identified as Quasam Shaikh and Salim, who are residents of localities surrounding the Shakti Mill compound at Mahalaxmi, where the five culprits allegedly tied up a male colleague of the victim and gang-raped her on Thursday. Sarnabai -grandmother of Chand - told the police that her grandson was a 16-year-old boy and not 19-year-old as claimed by the police. She produced a certificate before the police that showed Chand’s date of birth was February 26, 1997.
If his family could establish in a court of law that his age as little over 16 years, then Chand would be shown leniency in punishment and end up spending just three years at a correctional facility. Meanwhile, the condition of the 22-year-old girl, who is under observation at the Jaslok Hospital showed signs of improvement. “She is under constant medical supervision. She has recovered well today. …. She is psychologically balanced and in a positive frame of mind. We have placed her under round-the-clock observation. We are taking steps to ensure against any stimulus that might trigger further trauma,” Tarang Gianchandani, acting CEO and director-medical services of the hospital, said.
Nirmala Sawant-Prabhavalkar, chairperson of the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission (MSWC) met the girl and her family members at the Jaslok Hospital, where the victim is recuperating from the sexual assault and consequent trauma. “This is not the end of my life.....I want to fight it out....I would like to go back to work as early as possible,” the girl told Nirmala Sawant-Prabhavalkar.
Earlier, Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said: “We have so far arrested two accused. Both of them have confessed to their crime… Investigations are going on round the clock. Our teams are looking for the three absconding accused”. The arrested accused have been booked under sections 376 (D), 341, 342, 506 (2) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) read section 34 of the IPC.
According to police, the second arrested accused corroborated the identity of the three absconders - and his statements matched with the first accused. “We have a fair idea of the other accused persons who are on a run. Teams have fanned out and we hope to arrest them said,” a senior officer said. Earlier, talking to the media at her shanty at a Dhobi Talao slum in south-central Mumbai, Sarnabai claimed that her grandson was innocent and was being framed.
“Chand is a very good boy. He cannot do such a bad thing. He is only 16 years of age. I have document to prove that and I will produce it in the court…. On the day of incident, he left home at 5.30 pm and returned at 8 pm. When he returned home, he was shivering because of fever,” Sarnabai said. The investigators disputed Sarnabai’s claim and said that Chand would, if necessary, be subjected to an ossification test during investigations, to determine his actual age.