Trigger warning: Descriptions of sexual assault
Mumbai: A 34-year-old woman who was raped and brutally assaulted inside a stationary tempo in suburban Sakinaka in Mumbai has succumbed to her injuries on Saturday.
The incident, which took place on Friday, was reminiscent of the 2012 ‘Nirbhaya’ case for its barbarity. As per the preliminary probe, she had been raped and also assaulted with an unknown object, which was allegedly inserted into her genitals. She had also been stabbed with a knife, a police official told PTI.
Mohan Chouhan (45), the accused, was arrested within a few hours of the incident, under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 376 (rape), the official told the news agency.
The official cited above told the news agency that the police control room received a call in the early hours of Friday that a man was thrashing a woman on Khairani Road.
The Indian Express reported that the assault took place at around 2:55 am, when the woman fell unconscious on the footpath. The accused took her inside the tempo.
According to the police officials, the main control room received a call from a watchman at around 3:30 am, informing them that a woman was “lying unconscious inside a tempo in Sakinaka”. The information was forwarded to Sakinaka police station, following which a police team rushed to the spot to find the woman lying in a pool of blood. She was taken to the civic-run Rajawadi hospital, the official said. Her condition was said to be serious when she was admitted to the hospital. She soon succumbed to her injuries.
“On inspecting her the doctors said she sustained multiple lacerations on her body including her private parts,” said an investigator, according to the Indian Express.
Subsequently, the police officials recorded the watchman’s statement and registered a case.
According to the Indian Express, the police received information that the accused is a tempo driver and is homeless. “We got his phone number as well but his phone was switched off. Later with the help of informers, we managed to locate him at around 1:30 pm in the Sakinaka area,” an officer said.
The police took him to the police station. “Initially he tried misleading us by lying that his name is Sunil. But later when we conducted a sustained interrogation, he told us his real name is Mohan Chouhan,” an officer told the newspaper.
The accused originally hails from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has termed the incident of rape as a “blot on humanity”, and promised a fast-track trial in the case.
He asserted that the perpetrator would be punished severely.
“The trial in the case will be done on a fast track and the victim, who succumbed to injuries today, will get justice,” Thackeray said in a statement.
The chief minister said he has discussed the case with state home minister Dilip Walse Patil and Mumbai Police commissioner Hemant Nagrale.
“I have directed the authorities to expedite the investigation into the case,” he said.
According to PTI, the city police has formed a special investigation team to probe the incident.
“Assistant Commissioner of Police Jyotsna Rasam will be the investigation officer. The probe will be completed within a month, and the case will be tried before a fast-track court as the chief minister announced,” the commissioner said.
“As the victim was unconscious, her statement could not be recorded. Therefore police are as yet clueless about what exactly happened. But it will be ascertained during the investigation,” Nagrale said.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded capital punishment for the accused and questioned if women were safe in Maharashtra.
“I know that awarding a sentence is in the hands of the judiciary. But I feel the culprit in the Sakinaka rape should be hanged to death,” BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said. Another BJP leader Pravin Darekar said the “onus” of the incident was entirely on the Shiv Sena-led state government “because there is no respect left for the law”.
State BJP vice-president Chitra Wagh called for a new act on the lines of SC/ST Atrocities Act so that the culprits involved in cases of atrocities against women do not get bail easily. She also pointed out that the state women’s commission does not have a chairperson for over a year.
(With inputs from PTI)
Note: This story has been updated with the comments of Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Opposition parties on the incident. This is a developing story. More information will be added as it becomes available.