Completing the investigations into the much-discussed photojournalist gang-rape in less than a month, the city crime branch police on Thursday filed a 600-page chargesheet against the five accused in two city courts, after incorporating the crucial provisions of the Criminal law (Amendment) Act 2013, thus making a water-tight case against the alleged rapists.
While the investigators filed the main chargesheet against the four accused — Salim Ansari, Vijay Jadhav, Mohammed Kasim Hafiz Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali, and Siraj Rehman Khan — before a metropolitan court, they filed the same copy of the chargesheet before a juvenile justice court that sought to nail the fifth accused, who is a minor.
“We filed the charge-sheet against the four accused before a metropolitan magistrate’s court, while the same copy was also filed before a juvenile justice court as the fifth accused is a minor,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy told mediapersons here in the evening.
Shortly after the main chargesheet was filed in a metropolitan court, the Magistrate transferred the case to a Sessions court for a speedy trial. The police would produce the four accused before the Sessions court on Monday.
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.
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 five alleged culprits tied the victim girl’s male colleague up to a tree and with a belt and took her to an isolated place, where they perpetrated the sexual assault on her. They had fled the scene, after threatening the girl that they would post the photographs taken of her on their mobile phone on a social network site, if either she or colleague complained the matter to the police.
The city police arrested all five accused in the case within 72 hours of the crime.The comprehensive charge-sheet has incorporated statements of 86 witnesses, analysis of eight cell phones seized during the investigation and 22 DNA analysis reports of the spot where the rape took place, of hair, nails, body fluids etc.
A soil analysis report matching the soil found on the footwear of the accused has also been been made part of the evidence.The chargesheet also includes the statement of an independent witness who confirmed that three of the accused were playing cards with him when they got a phone call from the other two accused that evening, and they left for Shakti Mills Compound.
“We have a strong evidence against all the five accused, including a minor. There is absolutely no escape route for the accused,” a senior police official said.
The factors that have contributed to the police making a strong case against the accused are: The photojournalist and her male colleague identified all five accused during the identification parade. The clothes worn by the accused at the time of crime were recovered. The DNA samples taken from the victim’s vaginal swab have matched those taken from the accused clearly establishing they committed the offence. The call data records of the mobile phones also confirm their presence at the spot in Shakti Mills Compound on Aug 22 evening..