Day after Mumbai gangrape,one arrested,four on the run: Police

According to the FIR,the accused took pictures and video of the victim on mobile phones.

One of the accused in Thursday evenings alleged gangrape of a 22-year-old photojournalist was arrested on Friday morning. Four other accused have been identified,police said.

The photojournalist was gangraped inside the abandoned Shakti Mills compound at Mahalaxmi in central Mumbai where she had gone on assignment with a male colleague. The alleged rapists beat up the colleague.

According to the first information report (FIR),the accused took pictures and video of the victim on mobile phones as they raped her,and one of them blew her a kiss before leaving,the police said. The men allegedly threatened the victim with making the images and video public if she spoke about the incident.

In her statement given to police between Thursday midnight and 2 am on Friday,the woman recalled the first names of three men,officers said. Descriptions of the accused provided by her colleague helped police artists draw near closest sketches of all five accused,the officers added.

The Mumbai Police,which pulled out detection officers from multiple ranks and departments to put together 20 teams,released the sketches by 6 am on Friday to informers. They were working on leads to track the remaining four accused,and had detained 53 people by late evening.

At least two of the wanted accused have criminal records for property offences,including dacoity,Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh said. He said all the five accused are locals who live in slums in the vicinity of the mill. The accused have been booked under section 376 D of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act,2013,which pertains to rape of a woman by one or more persons constituting a group,and attracts a minimum imprisonment of 20 years and a maximum of life imprisonment. They have also been charged with wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation.

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The victim and her colleague had entered the mill compound from the Mahalakshmi railway station end and were shooting the mill and adjoining ruins,according to their statement. The woman was using a mobile phone,and her colleague an SLR camera.

Two of the accused first spotted and stopped them. They pointedly asked for their identities and how they reached the premises, Singh said. They told them (the victim and her colleague) that it was railway property and they needed permission to access and enter such areas.

The accused allegedly told the journalists that they needed permission from their seth before shooting any more pictures. A third man then turned up and said that the seth had seen them,and that what they were doing was wrong, a source said.

The woman said she would speak to the mens boss,but refused to either leave the company of her colleague or accompany the men deeper inside the premises. At this point,one of the accused allegedly demanded to know if the journalists were the same people who had committed a murder on the premises a few days ago.

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When the male colleague denied any knowledge of this,the two threatened him saying,You are the murderer,you will have to speak to our boss, Singh said. As the altercation continued,the two men called out for two others who were somewhere inside the compound,and made a phone call to a fifth man.

Three of the men then allegedly dragged the woman 20 feet away while the other two held her colleague,saying that they would be interrogated separately about the murder,Singh said.

The woman was taken around the corner to a mossy patch with bushes,police officers said. When her colleague resisted,one of the accused took off his leather belt,whipped him twice and tied him with the same belt. The victim has told the police that the men who took her away had a broken bottle and threatened her with it through the ordeal,officials said.

A police officer said,The woman has said that the accused were aiming their cell phones at her during the act,and we are interrogating the arrested accused to check if any photographs or videos of the act were taken.

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According to the officer,the accused freed the womans colleague after they had raped her,and took their picture with a cell phone. The accused then told them to go to Mahalaxmi station and take a train. The duo left for Jaslok Hospital after calling their office and families, he said.

Officers said data from cell phone towers have established the presence of all five men at Shakti Mills between 6 pm and 6.30 pm,when the crime was committed. The arrested accused has admitted his presence at the spot and has revealed details about the rest. We have also involved the forensics team who are probing every aspect, Singh said.

Doctors at Jaslok said the victims condition was stable. She has been provided psychological counselling as she is depressed and still shaken, Medical Director and CEO Dr Tarang Gianchandani said. She has sustained both external and internal injuries,Gianchandani said.

Medical superintendent Dr Satyadeo Malik said,We are bound to maintain confidentiality. The victims family wishes so. We have followed the medical protocol and a minor investigative procedure was conducted in the operation theatre in the morning.

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Gianchandani said no surgery had been performed yet. She has no fracture or serious injuries. She is able to communicate properly, he said.