BHIWANDI: Police on Tuesday arrested four of the seven accused of the gang rape of a 16-year-old in Bhiwandi earlier this month while a hunt is on for the other three who are on the run. The main accused is the girl’s boyfriend who had also recorded a video of the crime which he shared with his friends on a WhatsApp group.
The accused are aged between 20 and 30 and most are school dropouts who do odd jobs for a living.
The four arrested accused were produced before Bhiwandi court on Tuesday which remanded them to police custody till October 23.
Police said the crime took place on October 2 but the victim mustered the courage to inform her family only on Monday. They said on October 2, the boyfriend lured the child to an isolated place in Bhiwandi where he raped her. After she went back home, he called her to the same place again on some pretext and she was shocked to see that six of his friends were present too who then sexually assaulted her and warned her against informing anyone of the crime.
Police sources said the girl stopped speaking after the crime, which made her mother suspicious. The girl finally told her mother of the crime on Monday and her parents approached the police.
Bhiwandi taluka police booked the seven under Indian Penal Code sections 376D (gang rape), and 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) as well as sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and Information Technology Act.
A senior Thane rural police official said they formed separate teams under senior police inspector Ranvir Bayes.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
The accused are aged between 20 and 30 and most are school dropouts who do odd jobs for a living.
The four arrested accused were produced before Bhiwandi court on Tuesday which remanded them to police custody till October 23.
Police said the crime took place on October 2 but the victim mustered the courage to inform her family only on Monday. They said on October 2, the boyfriend lured the child to an isolated place in Bhiwandi where he raped her. After she went back home, he called her to the same place again on some pretext and she was shocked to see that six of his friends were present too who then sexually assaulted her and warned her against informing anyone of the crime.
Police sources said the girl stopped speaking after the crime, which made her mother suspicious. The girl finally told her mother of the crime on Monday and her parents approached the police.
Bhiwandi taluka police booked the seven under Indian Penal Code sections 376D (gang rape), and 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) as well as sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and Information Technology Act.
A senior Thane rural police official said they formed separate teams under senior police inspector Ranvir Bayes.
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
