E-Paper
Minor’s gang-rape in Pune: All accused sent to judicial custody
The 13 men arrested earlier and the two men in the minor’s ganag-rape case in Pune and now remanded to judicial custody, are accused of keeping the girl captive and passing her on from one person to another who assaulted her for two days and two nights before forcing her to board a train to Mumbai
PUNE: The two men arrested last week as the 18th and 19th accused in the case of sexual assault on a girl, 14, by multiple men registered at Wanowrie police station, were remanded to judicial custody by a vacation bench on Sunday. The order was given by additional sessions judge B P Kshirsagar with no public prosecutor or defence lawyer present in court.
The men were identified as Ismail Shaikh and Mehboob Shaikh, both auto-rickshaw drivers and residents of New MHADA colony in Pune. The survivor identified the duo as having sexually assaulted her in a supplementary statement recorded after the arrest of 14 accused in the case. The 14 men arrested earlier - including the survivor’s friend who was trying to take her to Chandigarh with him – were remanded to judicial custody on September 20 after spending 14 days each in police custody.
The 13 men arrested earlier and the two men now remanded to judicial custody, are accused of keeping the girl captive and passing her on from one person to another who assaulted her for two days and two nights before forcing her to board a train to Mumbai. When the girl alighted at Dadar station, she was allegedly assaulted by yet another man who has also been arrested. The 13 men arrested earlier allegedly took the survivor to at least six locations including a lodge and made pornographic videos of her. The police have also arrested two employees of the lodge which accepted the girl’s fake identity and allowed her to be taken to a room without proper verification.
Most of the accused in the case are auto-rickshaw drivers, one of whom kidnapped the girl from Pune railway station on August 31 under the pretext of dropping her home. Two are railway employees including a cleaner and a person who arranged for the girl’s ticket, according to the police.
A case under sections 376, 377, 363, 120(b) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Wanowrie police station along with relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
