The city Crime Branch sleuths probing the photojournalist gang-rape case suffered a setback on Friday, as they were forced to send the youngest of the five arrest accused to Dongri remand home in south Mumbai on the basis of documentary proof produced by his relatives that showed he was a “minor”.
Ironically enough, the investigators — working hard to build a fool-proof case and secure maximum punishment to the accused — had to make do with the setback on a day when they buttressed their case against the five accused by adding three more charges — Sections 201 (destruction of evidence), 377 (unnatural sex), and 120-b (criminal conspiracy) of IPC.
The investigators incorporated the three new charges against the five accused on the basis of a supplementary statement of the rape survivor that they recorded after her discharge from the Jaslok Hospital early this week.
The three charges are in addition to the amended 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 which have already been invoked against the accused in this case.
Earlier, hours before the investigators sought the extension in remand of four of the accused, the relatives of Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh, one of the five accused, produced the copies of his birth certificates of the hospital where he was born as well as the lower Parel ward office of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation where his birth was registered.
Both the certificates show that Chand was born on February 26, 1997 (as claimed by his grandmother Sarnabai a day after his arrest last week) -- which makes him 16 years and six months old and not above-18 years as claimed by the city police earlier. So much so that a confident Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh had said that if need be, the investigators would subject Chand to ossification test to determine his actual age.