As reported by PTI Sep 1, 2010

A fast track trial court today recorded final statements of five of the six accused in the TISS rape case.
In the statement recorded under section 313 of CrPC, the accused denied all the allegations leveled against them for raping a US national, studying at the TISS institute, in April last year.

“The five accused told the court that they had gone out with the girl for partying and then returned to the house of one of the accused. They denied having raped her,” defence lawyer Rohini Salian said.

Six students – Vinamra Soni (23), Harshavardhan Yadav (22), Jaskaran Singh (21), Dev Colabawala (21), Anish Borkatki (21) and Kundanraj Borgonain (22) were arrested in April soon after the alleged incident.

According to the police, on April 12 last year, the victim had gone to a party with a hostelmate and six of her male friends. The group had snacked and consumed liquor at Deonar’’s Cafe XO after which she, along with her male friends, went to Andheri. She was allegedly raped at Borgonain’’s rented flat there.

The girl’’s statement blames Soni as the main culprit who spiked her drink and raped her along with the other accused.
The court will record the statement of Borgonain on September 3.

Excerpt from Hindustan Times, reported  on July 29, 2010: Read Full Article

Family members of the 17-year-old Chembur rape victim on Wednesday said they should not have approached the authorities of Vivekanand Education Society’s College where their daughter and the accused studied. They should have approached the police, they said.

The 20-year-old management student was allegedly raped by her senior of the Chembur college on July 21. The family filed a police complaint on Sunday, four days after the incident.

“The medical reports may not confirm rape as the examination has been delayed by three days,” said the girl’s father.

“When we learnt the boy’s father is a peon in the same college, we filed a police complaint.” They met through a social networking site and became friends. “My daughter’s life has been ruined,” he said.

The girl’s family said they had a reputation to protect and instead of going to the police they approached the principal. “We thought the principal being a woman, would initiate action. But she claimed the boy was innocent,” said another family member.

The feel if they had gone to the police on the first day itself, the girl’s medical examination would have been done and vital scientific evidence, confirming the rape, would have been collected immediately.

Excerpt from Hindustan Times, reported by Shahkar Abidi & Yashshri Soman, on July 28, 2010: Read Full Article

‘We approached college first’ :
The family of the 17-year-old girl, who was allegedly raped on July 21 by her senior from the Chembur college they studied in, first approached the college and asked for action to be taken against the boy.

The girl has alleged that the 20-year-old boy, a third year student of the Bachelor of Management Studies, raped her at his house in Chembur Camp when she had gone there to work on a college project. They had met on a social networking site.

Sources close to the girl’s family said they first approached authorities at Vivekanand Education Society’s College of Arts Science and Commerce, seeking action against the boy, since he too was their student.

Girl has cooked up story: Boy’s dad
Excerpt from Hindustan Times, on July 28, 2010: Read Full Article
The father of the 20-year-old college student accused of raping his junior on July 21 has alleged that the victim had cooked up a story to malign their family. “My son is innocent and I am 100 per cent sure about this,” the boy’s father told HT on Tuesday. He denied the girl visited his home on the night of the alleged crime.

The boy’s father, who works as a peon, also denied that his family was away on a pilgrimage when the alleged rape took place. “We were very much at home on that day,” he said.
“We are poor people. My son can never commit such a heinous crime. His only fault was he befriended a rich girl.”

Excerpt from Hindustan Times by Shahkar Abidi & Yashshri Soman, on July 27, 2010: Read Full Article

Friends and classmates of the 20-year-old student of Vivekanand Education Society’s College of Arts, Science and Commerce arrested on Sunday on charges of raping a junior from the same college, refused to believe he could have committed such an act. “I know him as a shy introvert. I still can’t believe he could do such a thing,” said a friend of the accused, who like most other students, did not wish to be identified.
She claimed she knew the 20-year-old for the last couple of years and said he was a reserved person who hardly mingled with anyone. “I never noticed him look at a girl with bad intentions. He seemed the kind who could harm anybody,” the friend added.

The families of the accused and the victim were not available for comment.

Sources said the accused was his parents’ only son. He has two sisters, who are married.

Sources added that his family had taken great pains to educate him and had hoped he would bail them out of their poverty.

Faculty members, who often passed by the accused and the victim in the college corridors, were stunned by the allegations.

“I am shocked,” said J. K. Phadnis, principal of Vivekanand Education Society’s College of Arts, Science and Commerce at Chembur. “We do not plan to take any action against the boy unless he is proved guilty.”

As reported by PTI on July 26, 2010

A 20-year-old student allegedly raped his college mate at his residence in suburban Chembur at knifepoint, police said today.

The student, identified as Pankaj Mishra, 20, a student of the Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS) course, was arrested yesterday from his residence after the 17-year-old girl lodged a complaint, BB Rathod, senior inspector at the Chembur police station, said.

Mishra and the victim, a first-year student of a mass media course, both study in Vivekanand College in Chembur.

The accused was booked for rape (section 376 of the Indian Penal Code), wrongful restraint (section 341), and wrongful confinement (section 342).

According to the police, Mishra and the victim became friends through Facebook in the second week of June. Later, they discovered that they were studying in the same college.

“As they met in college later, they became good friends. The victim told Mishra that she had to complete one project assigned by her professor in the class. Mishra called her to his home on July 20 saying he had done similar projects when he was in the first year and he could help her in completing it. She went to his house on that day,” Rathod added.

The next day again, she went to the accused’s house but Mishra threatened her with a knife to stay back when she wanted to leave in the evening, the police said.

At around 11.30 pm, Mishra sexually abused her and let her go home the next day, the police said.

The victim told her parents, who work in separate private firms, how the accused threatened her with a knife and sexually abused her, the police said, adding that the victim lodged the complaint yesterday.

Mishra’s father works in the same college, police said adding that the victim was taken to Nagpada police hospital for a medical examination and that further a probe was on.

As reported in TOI on Apr 19, 2010

A 36-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping his neighbour’s minor daughter at his home in Mankhurd. The incident occurred on Saturday. The accused, Om Prakas Valmiki, asked the 14-year-old victim to go to a nearby shop and get him a bottle of shampoo. He called the girl inside his house on the pretext of giving her money for the shampoo. As soon as the girl entered, he locked the door and repeatedly raped her. The victim, in her statement to the police, stated, “Valmiki, who is married with three kids, was alone at home when he raped me.” ACP (Trombay) Jalinder Khandagale confirmed the incident, but refused to elaborate. A Mankhurd police officer said the victim’s elder sister sensed something was amiss when she spotted her outside the house, looking frightened. “She broke down and told her the entire matter,” the officer said. The medical examination has confirmed rape.

Excerpt from DNA, reported by Divyesh Singh on March 9, 2010: Read Full Article

Residents of Alidada Estate in Shramik Nagar, Kurla, are scared to send their children to school after a nine-year-old girl from the locality was found raped and murdered on the terrace of a police colony building, about a kilometre away, on Sunday.

The entire area wore a deserted look on Monday as most of the children stayed indoors. Rashmi (not her real name) had gone out to play after returning from her tuition classes on Saturday when she went missing. “We did not allow our children to go out of the house to play,” a resident said. “We do not want any such thing to happen to them. Though children cannot understand what has actually happened, they can sense something is wrong.”

Nearly two weeks ago, Coro, an NGO working in Shivaji Nagar, Bainganwadi, and Govandi, had protested in front of the deputy commissioner’s office in Chembur against the failure of the police to stop rapes. A member of the NGO said that at least eight minors from the area had been raped in the past two-and-a-half months.

As reported in Mumbai Mirror by  Akela on February 21, 2010

Shivajinagar police have detained 10 persons for the kidnapping and gangrape of a 16-year-old girl in their area.According to police, the girl was returning to her Govandi home from school on February 15 at 6 pm when three youths forced her inside an autorickshaw.

They allegedly took her to a secluded spot and raped her. They then dumped her in an unconscious state near the Ambedkar Statue at Banganwadi. Passersby gathered and the girl’s sister recognised her and she was taken to a private hospital. However, when doctors said that she had been a victim of sexual assault, she was shifted to Ghatkopar’s Rajawadi Hospital.

The girl is said to be extremely traumatised. “She starts shouting even at the sight of a stranger,” her sister said. Police say she was being harassed by a local boy earlier this month. He would approach the girl, a Std VI student at a local municipal school, telling her to accept his advances on Valentine’s Day and say ‘I Love You’ to him. On February 12, she reported the matter to her mother.

Police say her mother then met the boy and threatened to report the matter to the police. However, on February 14 the boy threatened the girl that he would pick her up from her house if she rejected his advances.

While the mother can identify this boy, it is not clear if he is the one who committed the crime. DCP Dilip Sawant said, “The girl is not in a state to identify anyone. We are waiting for her to be discharged to take action.”

This is the sixth such incident in the area in the last one month.

As reported in http://www.hindustantimes.com on January 29, 2010

Aman Bharadwaj, the main accused in the rape of a Russian minor girl, has been arrested in Chembur, in Mumbai, Goa police said on Friday evening.
Speaking to reporters in Panaji, Deputy Inspector General of police Ravindra Yadav said Bharadwaj was arrested by a Goa police team in Chembur on Friday evening.
“We had got a tip off that he was in Chembur. Our team picked him up, They are on their way back,” Yadav said.
The police have already arrested Anil Raghuvanshi, the second accused in the January 26 rape, at a city bus stand in the morning. Bharadwaj and Raghuvanshi, both employees of a pharmaceutical company in Dhargal, 45 km from Panaji, are accused of raping a nine-year-old Russian girl at Arambol beach.
In her complaint to the Goa police, the victim’s mother had alleged that while Raghuvanshi had distracted her with conversation, Bharadwaj had raped her daughter who was bathing in the sea.
The complaint had triggered a nationwide media debate on the safety of women, especially women tourists in Goa. The union tourism ministry had shot off a letter to the state government seeking details on the issue of safety of tourists in the state.
The Russian embassy had also warned of issuing a tourist advisory against Goa, if the state authorities could not spruce up their act. This is not the first instance of a crime against a Russian woman in the tourist state.
A 25-year-old Russian woman was raped by a Goan politician in December last year.
Police have also been unable to crack the mysterious death of Russian teenager Elena Sukhonova, whose mangled body was found on the railway tracks near Thivim, 25 km from Panaji.
Nearly 40,000 Russian tourists visit Goa annually.

As reported by PTI on 14th Jan 2010

The 23-year-old US national and student of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) who was allegedly gangraped is likely to depose against the six accused on January 27.

A fast track court had on January 7 framed charges against the six accused and the prosecution today submitted all the medical and forensic documents that would be produced as evidence.

The prosecution will examine 27 witnesses to establish their case against the accused persons.

The six accused – Vinamra Soni, Harshvardhan Yadav, Jashkaran Bhullar, Anish Borkataki, Dev Colabawala and Kundanraj Borgohain- will face trial under section 376 (g) of IPC which deals with gangrape.

The case dates back to April 2009 when the accused first met the victim at a pub near TISS in suburban Deonar and then took her to Borgohain’s flat in suburban Andheri where they allegedly raped her.