Complaint fake,gangrape accused may sue woman

On July 7,2008,Sanu Gowda (20),Santosh Pawar (19),Suraj Bharshankar (19) and three minor boys were playing cricket in the open ground of their MHADA complex in Nahur when housewife Aarti Garodia (name changed) spat from her first-floor residence,inadvertently on one of the boys. A heated argument followed between the boys and Garodia,following which she brought the Bhandup police to the complex,accusing the boys of gangraping her. The police also arrested welder Mahendra Adhangale (22) who had come looking for a room on rent in the complex but got involved in the fight.

The accused said the case had left an indelible blot on their education and careers. “After I was released on bail,I had to quit school without appearing for my class IX exams as the news had spread among my classmates. They would call me a rapist and taunt me. I used to clean rickshaws for pocket money earlier,but after leaving school I took up several petty jobs and now deliver milk,” said one of them,now a 17 year-old.

Incidentally,the minors were also jailed in the Vikhroli illicit liquor case. “We were torn between the desire to commit suicide and our doubts about our son’s guilt. We told him to go back to school,but he burnt his books and vowed never to study again. To this day,he remains irritable,” his father said.

Another boy dropped out of school and appeared for his Class X exams privately but failed in them. Both he and the third minor will take the exams this year. The other accused were either sacked or forced to leave their jobs after their employers learnt about the case and had refused to leave their homes for almost a year after being bailed out. They are now engaged in different jobs.

“My son’s only fault was that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was on the verge of suicide after he returned home from jail. He kept repeating that with a wife and young daughter dependent on him,how could they accuse him of rape. Even today,we see the distrust and hurt in his eyes,” said DN Adhangale,Mahendra’s father.

While the Sessions Court had acquitted them on Monday,the case against three minors will be heard by the Juvenile Justice Court,Dongri,only in May.