Mumbai erupted in outrage on Friday over the gang-rape of a young photojournalist on the premises of a defunct textile mill in south-central Mumbai on Thursday evening, even as the police swiftly cracked the case by arresting an alleged rapist and identifying four others behind the shocking crime that has dented the Maximum City's image of being a safe place for women.
On a day when the city reeled under acute embarrassment, journalists from print and electronic media, social and political activists took to streets in protest against the gang-rape of a 22-year-old photojournalist, at the closed Shakti Mill compound at Mahalaxmi, where she had gone along with a male colleague on an assignment for her English magazine.
Charging that there was no law & order in the State and that Mumbai was no longer safe for women, the Opposition parties demanded the resignation of Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil. However, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Patil himself rejected the Opposition’s demand. The victim, who is under observation at Jaslok Hospital, showed feeble signs of recovering from the sexual assault she suffered at the hands of five local youngsters — all in the age group of 20-22 years. The accused tied her male colleague up with a belt and took her to an isolated place, where they allegedly gang-raped her in the cover of tall grass and shrubs surrounding the dilapidated remains of the closed textile mill.
“She (the victim woman) is stable and doing well…. she is fine, she is talking but is slightly depressed. I am sure she will come out (of the trauma)… She underwent a minor investigating procedure this morning. She is not in the ICU now. As far as her discharge is concerned, I cannot tell you anything about it as of now. Because the incident happened just yesterday and she is still under observation," said Tarang Gianchandani, acting CEO and director of medical services of the hospital.
Working on the description of the accused given by the victim and her male colleagues, the city police arrested one of the alleged rapists around noon on Friday. "We have arrested one of the alleged culprits. He has confessed to the crime. He has also identified four other accused who perpetrated the crime along with him. We have formed as many as 20 teams and are looking for the remaining four other culprits," Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told the media.
"like the arrested person, the other accused are aged between 20 and 22 years. They are all from the localities surrounding the closed mill. Two of the five accused are history-sheeters," Singh said. However, he declined to divulge the identities of the arrested accused on the ground that such a disclosure would affect the investigations "This is a sensitive case. If I disclose the names of the accused, it would affect the investigations. If you co-operate with us on this count, we will able to nab the four absconding accused as soon as possible," the city police chief said.
However, after Singh's news conference, a senior police officer identified the arrested accused as one Mohammed Abdul, alias Chand, while he named others as Vijay Jadhav, Qasim Bengali, Saleem and Ashfaq. Earlier, giving details about the chain of events leading to the sexual crime, Singh said that the incident happened between 6 pm and 6.30 pm on Thursday, when the victim --- who is an intern photographer with a magazine --- along with a male photojournalist working for the same magazine, had gone to the Shakti mill compound to shoot pictures for a story.
"While her male colleague was shooting pictures from his camera, the victim woman was taking photographs through mobile phone. While they were shooting picture, the accused accosted the two and accused them of trespassing into the compound claiming that it was a railway property," Singh said. "One of the accused also accused the male photojournalist of having been involved in a murder that had taken place on the premises a few days ago. Thereafter one of the two persons present there called another person on his cell and asked him to come....after some time, three persons joined the two of them," the CP said.
"They tied up the male photojournalist with his own belt first and later used a rope to tie him up. On the pretext of questioning the two separately, the accused took away the girl to an isolated place -- 15 to 20 feet way and perpetrated sexual assault on her," said the Mumbai CP. "After the incident, the victim girl and her colleague went to the hospital where she was admitted. We, the police, came to know of the incident at around 8.30 pm," Singh said. "Without wasting any time, we swung into action and formed 20 teams to investigate the case. From the descriptions the victim girl and her male colleague gave, we sketches drawn of all the five accused. We managed to arrest one of the accused around noon," the police commissioner said.
Meanwhile, the gang rape of a intern working for a lifestyle magazine sent shockwaves through the media fraternity. More than 300 journalists, photographers, writers - wearing black bands staged a silent dharna at historic Hutatma Chowk, popularly known as Flora Fountain, at Fort in south Mumbai. The protesting journalists displayed banners with strong messages like: "law of the Jungle in city, Mumbai Police wake up", "Mumbai becomes India's new Rape Capital, We demand safety and security for all", "Safety for working journalists, Security for toiling citizens", "City of shame! Photo-journalist gang-raped!!", "Bring rapists to book, Arrest killers of Dr Narendra Dhabolkar" and "Journalists Unity Zindabad!" In a related development, Shiv Sena's women activists and Aam Aadmi Party workers also staged rallies in protest against the gang rape of a photojournalist.