Security guard in residential building in Mumbai arrested for raping mentally ill woman

32-year-old man had allegedly been raping 53-year-old woman, taking advantage of her solitude and illness

The Bandra police have arrested the security guard of a building near the Mount Mary church for allegedly repeatedly raping a 53-year-old mentally ill woman who lived alone there.

The incident came to light when the rape survivor’s daughter had come to stay with her and overheard someone trying to break in. (HT FILE)

The police said Ram Achewar, 32, had broken into the woman’s apartment and assaulted her at night several times before, but the crime came to light on Friday, as the woman’s daughter was visiting and heard someone trying to enter the house.

The woman’s 22-year-old daughter lives in a nearby building with her uncle and aunt, but on Thursday, decided to stay with her mother, as she was worried she had stopped eating.

Around 1.30 am on Friday, the daughter was woken from her sleep when she heard someone knock on the door. She first ignored the sound but when it persisted, she walked towards the door and saw someone trying to open it using a metal wire slid through an adjacent window. She then heard a man calling out her mother’s name and asking if she wanted “Thums Up”.

The daughter alerted her uncle and aunt, who reached the apartment soon after and approached the society’s manager about the break-in attempt. “When the building residents checked CCTV footage, they saw that the man trying to enter the survivor’s apartment was the watchman,” the police told the metropolitan magistrate court.

Achewar confessed to raping the woman after the family and residents confronted him.

“Despite stringent laws, crimes against women are on the rise. Such incidents need to be investigated thoroughly. The accused has been remanded in police custody till Wednesday,” said Priti Jagtap, assistant public prosecutor at Bandra court.