The Uran police have arrested three men for gang raping a 24-year-old married woman at her residence, thrice between September 3 and 11, while she was alone.
The accused, Ajinkya Hiralal Dabholkar, Vaibhav Pandurang Koli and Vishwanath Baliram Gaikwad, were fishermen and knew the victim as they worked with her husband. Mr. Gaikwad was also her relative.
On the night of September 3, Mr. Dabholkar and Mr. Koli, knocked on the door of the victim’s house, aware of the fact that she was alone at home. Her children had gone to visit their grandparents, and her husband was also away. When she opened the door, the duo forced themselves on her and raped her.
The next day, she narrated her ordeal to Mr. Gaikwad, but even he took advantage of the situation and raped her by threatening to tell her husband about the incident. “The victim was epileptic and fell unconscious after she was raped. The accused, meanwhile, used the opportunity to take photographs of her in compromising positions,” said senior inspector Jagdish Kulkarni from Uran police station. He said the trio then blackmailed her using the photos and raped her repeatedly.
The last incident occurred on September 10. The next day, the victim’s husband noticed that she seemed phsically and mentally unwell and stressed. “When he asked her what happened, the victim finally narrated the ordeal to her husband. A case was registered against the accused on September 12, and they were arrested,” Mr. Kulkarni said, adding that the phone, which had the photographs and videos, has been seized.
The trio have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, and the IT Act, and will be in police custody till Wednesday.
