The Mumbai police have arrested the remaining three accused in the Dindoshi minor girl rape case.
The three arrested are minors and were nabbed late last night from Bell Bazaar area in Sakinaka, a suburb in western Mumbai.
“We were keeping a watch on their friends and also the mobile numbers of the accused were put under surveillance. When we got information that they had come to meet their friend, we laid a trap and got them arrested,” Dilip Jadhav, the investigating officer told The Hindu .
The three, including the main accused, the victim's boyfriend had managed to flee last week after the girl lodged a complaint.
On November 1, under the pretext of giving the victim a Diwali gift, one of the accused who was the victim’s boyfriend called her on her mobile phone and asked her to meet him outside. The main accused who the police suspect to be a minor and one more accused met the victim near MHADA colony, close to the scene of crime and offered her a cold drink. Meanwhile the other accused joined them.
After having the drink the girl complained of headache and told the main accused that she wanted to go home. But he told the girl to stay put saying that he was going to a shop to buy snacks. The other accused then physically assaulted the girl and dragged her to the secluded spot. The girl was forced to drink beer before she was gang raped. The accused threatened to bludgeon her to death and continued to violate her. They then hired an autorickshaw to purchase more liquor from a nearby restaurant. Since the girl was frail they left her in the autorickshaw and went to collect alcohol. In the meantime the girl managed to give them a slip and reached home but she couldn’t muster the courage to narrate her ordeal to her family members. On November 3, after her grandmother persisted on why she had suddenly gone so quite, the girl broke down and confided in her. The victim’s brother then took her to the police station and lodged a complaint.
On the same day, when the accused learnt that the girl’s brother had landed up at the police station, he fled, the police said.
The uncanny similarities between the August 20 photojournalist gang rape and the Dindoshi rape case are striking. Like the Shakti Mills gang rape case, the spot where the girl was brutalised was secluded.
Also in both the cases, the accused are history-sheeters wanted in cases of property offence and after the crime they had gone back home without the fear that the victim might lodge a complaint.
An Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) was asked to probe if there was any complacency on the part of the police to lodge a case. The officer had found two lower rank police officers guilty and has recommended a departmental inquiry against the two.
