Mumbai gang-rape: mom’s complaint led cops to survivor

On August 1, a concerned mother registered a missing person’s complaint with Bhandup police station after her 19-year-old daughter did not return home from work. A month later, on September 2, the mother called up the police station to inform them that her daughter had returned.

On August 1, a concerned mother registered a missing person’s complaint with Bhandup police station after her 19-year-old daughter did not return home from work. A month later, on September 2, the mother called up the police station to inform them that her daughter had returned.

The Bhandup police insisted that the mother come along with her daughter to record her statement, and it was during the process of recording the statement that the girl broke down and revealed the chilling ordeal she went through on July 31 at Shakti Mill compound, where she was gangraped by three of the accused who have been arrested in the photojournalist’s gangrape case.

Explaining the sequence of events, a police officer said: “The girl worked as a telephone operator. On July 31, her male friend asked her to meet him as he wanted to ask her to marry him. They met at Bhandup around 6.30pm and went to Mahalaxmi by train.”

As the duo were going back to Mahalaxmi station via a shortcut, they were accosted by five men, who tied up her friend and forcibly took them to Shakti Mill compound where they raped her. The traumatised duo took a train to Chhattisgarh, soon after and stayed there with a friend of his for a month.

“When the survivor did not return home, the mother call her office and found out that she had left the office with a young man. The next day she lodged a missing complaint,” the officer said.

The police said the mother had objected to the duo’s relationship. “The duo had met when they were working together previously. The mother wanted her daughter to marry a person who has his own house and the boy didn’t,” said the officer.

“On Monday, after her mother got her to the police station, she broke down as we started recording her statement. She told us what had happened,” the officer said, adding that the survivor is very traumatised. “The girl told us she wants the accused to face stringent punishment for what they did.”