A 15-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by five men behind a bakery in Mumbai, India, before being molested by another man in a separate attack. Police said six men have been arrested.
The main accused and four associates allegedly lured the child to an isolated plot in the Powai area and assaulted her between October 27 and 28, according to police. After the assault, the accused threatened to circulate photographs on social media if she told her family or the police.
In a related incident, the girl was allegedly intercepted, molested and sexually harassed near a pipeline in Powai, officials said.
Arrests within 24 hours
The girl came forward to the Powai Police Station on the morning of October 29 with the help of her family. Police launched an immediate manhunt and arrested all accused within 24 hours of the alleged incident following property raids. Police said none of the accused had a previous criminal record, reports The Statesman.
“Within just 24 hours of receiving the victim’s complaint, Mumbai Police teams conducted raids at various locations and apprehended all the accused,” officials said, as per the INAS report.
Police said that “recognising the gravity of the situation”, officers immediately registered a report under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which relates to serious sexual offences. Charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) were also invoked. The legislation was introduced in 2012 to safeguard individuals under the age of 18 from sexual assault and sexual harassment.
Investigation and medical examination
“A thorough investigation into the case is currently underway under the supervision of senior police personnel,” officials said. The victim was sent to Mumbai’s KEM Hospital for a medical examination.
Tougher rape laws were introduced in India over the past decade following the gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in 2012 in Delhi, who died from her injuries. Perpetrators can be sentenced to the death penalty in severe cases, and special courts were established to ensure faster trials for certain reports.
However, campaigners say little has changed. Yogita Bhayana told the BBC “we have learnt no lessons” in June this year after a 28-year-old mother of four said she was gang-raped in her own home by a group of men who allegedly inserted objects into her. Bhayana warned that “fear has not been installed in society”.
Protests also recently erupted in Delhi after successive rape cases, including the alleged gang-rape of a 17-year-old in a public park by three men who posed as police officers.
