Call centre staffer too was raped inside Shakti Mills

Three Accused Later Brutalized Photojournalist

S Ahmed Ali & V Narayan TNN

Mumbai: Identifying some of her tormentors in reports about the Shakti Mills gangrape case, an 18-and-a-halfyear-old call centre employee mustered the courage to tell the police on Monday that she too had been raped by five men inside the same mill. The revelation suggests that a much bigger gang was targeting women inside the abandoned mill in Mahalaxmi.
    The survivor told the Bhandup police that the gang had trapped them when she and her boyfriend—aged 21, and now her husband—went to the mill on the evening of July 31 seeking privacy.
    Two of them, Salim Ansari, 27, and Mohammed Qasim Shaikh, 19, first accosted them. Her friend, sensing trouble, challenged them and asked her to flee. But three others—Vijay Jadhav, 19, his nephew and Ashfaque Shaikh—had joined the gang and dragged them into the ruins. After tying up her friend with her dupatta, they took turns to rape her.
WHAT HAPPENED ON JULY 31
    An 18-year-old employee of a call centre and her boyfriend went into the Shakti Mills compound for some privacy. Five men threatened them, tied up the boy and raped the girl. The couple then went to Chhattisgarh and got married. She went to the police on Monday to cancel a missing FIR lodged by her mother. She also lodged a rape complaint, identifying three of the suspects Survivor’s boyfriend fought gang, but was outnumbered
Mumbai: The N M Joshi police have taken over the new Shakti Mills gangrape probe after a complaint filed by a teenaged call centre employee. On Tuesday, they arrested accused Vijay Jadhav’s nephew, who is said to be 17. A hunt is on for another accused, Ashfaque Shaikh. The others named in the new case, Salim Ansari, Qasim Shaikh and Jadhav, are in police custody till Thursday for the August 22 gangrape of a photojournalist. The juvenile involved in the August 22 case did not have a role in the earlier case.
    The survivor who has come forward now went with her boyfriend to Mahalaxmi on July 31. “It was around 6.30pm and they had to wait for two hours. So, they decided to go for a stroll along the tracks and entered the mill. Soon, two of the accused stopped them,” said a police officer. Ansari and Qasim, posing as officials, asked why they had entered railway property and asked the two to accompany them.
    “The survivor said in the FIR that her husband fought off the two assailants, but was overpowered when three others joined them. They tied him to a broken wall before raping her. After about one-and-a-half hours, the couple walked to the station. They hired a cab, bought new clothes and went to Mumbai Central and eloped to Chhattisgarh. They got married there,” said the police.
    The next day, the survivor’s mother lodged a missing complaint with the Bhandup police after her last mobile network location was tracked there. The survivor used to work for a call centre in Bhandup.
    The couple returned on August 31. The police then asked her to cancel the missing complaint. She visited the police station with her husband late on Monday and lodged the gangrape complaint.
    She will undergo a medical test on Wednesday. Police are collecting call records of the five accused to prove they were at the mill on July 31.
TIMES VIEW: The probe into the Shakti Mills gangrape and the skeletons tumbling out of the criminals’ closet indicate that such elements have come to enjoy a free run. It’s true that it’s not possible for cops to give round-the-clock security to all 1.4 million citizens of Mumbai. But what goes against our police force and the system is the type of confidence criminals seem to have in their invincibility. These men seem to have committed similar offences repeatedly, and each undetected offence has emboldened them. What’s scary is such elements don’t only inhabit unused mills; these are people are walking around the city and its railway stations and bus stops, forcing you and me to share the same space with them. This is where the policing system has to take blame; it now has to ensure criminals don’t feel so safe inhabiting our space.

THE ACCUSED

Vijay Jadhav (19)

Mohammed Qasim alias Bangali (21)

Salim Ansari (27)
Ashfaque Shaikh (20) A juvenile, a relative of Vijay Jadhav The three pictured above were arrested for raping a photojournalist inside Shakti Mills on August 22