Mumbai:
A court in Mumbai has sent four of the five accused of gang-raping a 23-year-old photojournalist to judicial custody till September 19. The fifth accused, who is a minor, is currently lodged in a juvenile remand home.
Kasim Bangali, Siraj Rehman Khan, Salim Ansari and Vijay Jadhav were produced in court this morning. An identification parade of the accused is likely to be carried out soon. According to sources, the juvenile accused has already been identified by the photojournalist and her friend through an identification parade.
Of the four adult accused, three are likely to be sent to police custody again later for interrogation in another case of gang-rape of a 19-year-old woman on July 31 inside the Shakti Mills compound, the deserted textile mill where the photojournalist was brutally raped by the five men on August 22.
The second case of gang-rape has been transferred to the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police, which is already investigating the gang-rape of the photojournalist. Sources say, the accused have admitted to committing at least four sexual crimes in the same area in the past. One of the accused arrested in the second gang-rape on July 31 is also a minor and has been kept at a juvenile remand home. The police are on the lookout for the fifth accused.