Woman gang-raped in Mumbai, 7 arrested

MUMBAI: A 28-year-old woman, who had gone house-hunting in an Andheri (W) slum with her husband, was gangraped late on Monday. Four men took turns to rape her while their four aides threatened her husband and dragged him away from the crime scene. All the eight accused were arrested on Tuesday.The woman and her husband live in Powai. As the husband works near Shyam Nagar slums in Andheri, the couple wanted to look for a house in the same neighbourhood. On Monday, the couple went to Andheri to look for a house and contacted an elderly woman, who is their distant relative and lives in that neighbourhood.“By night, the couple couldn’t find a house of their choice. Their relative then suggested that they stay with her for the night and continue looking for a house the next day. The couple agreed as returning to Powai and coming back the next day would have been too tiring,” a police officer said.The relative works on night duty and hence, she left the couple at her place while she went to work. “After the relative left, a few men from the locality, most of them drug addicts, noticed that lights in the house were still on even though the woman who resides there had left. The men knocked on the door of the house and hearing the noises, the couple woke up,” said an officer.The men presumed that the couple had eloped and come to the house. Four of them dragged the victim’s husband, threatened him and took him away. Four others took turns to rape the victim. One of them raped her twice. The incident occurred between 10.30 and 11pm.Later, the victim approached the Amboli police. A medical exam was conducted and a case of gangrape registered around 2.30am. The police said medical reports are awaited. On Tuesday morning, the police arrested Rastail Shaikh (19), Nagesh Dhangar (19), Imran Shaikh (23), Mohammad Ghulam Khan (23), Rakesh Laxman Kher (21), Zahir Sharif Khan (23) and Ijaz Ahmed Shaikh (23). They were produced before a magistrate court and remanded in police custody till November 4. The eighth accused, Pradeep Ghaghat, was arrested on Tuesday evening. He will be produced before a magistrate court on Wednesday.The house where the crime took place is located in a desolate corner and the police are checking if the relative had called the survivor and her husband there on purpose. The police said that locals were of no help in tracing the accused.