Crime branch to probe 2nd gangrape case too Photojournalist Identifies 17-Year-Old Accused S Ahmed Ali & V Narayan TNN Mumbai: The home department, on Wednesday, transferred the 18-year-old call centre employee’s gangrape case to the crime branch, which is also investigating the photojournalist’s gangrape in Shakti Mills compound. The police and crime branch have launched a manhunt to trace Dhobi Talao resident Ashfaque Shaikh (27), one of the accused in the call centre employee’s gangrape on July 31. He has been in hiding since August 22, after the police started arresting his friends for raping the 22-yearold photojournalist. The crime branch has detained Shaikh’s wife, and has sent three teams to look for him. “They are making his wife call on his cellphone, but he is not taking her calls,” said a relative of Shaikh, waiting outside the N M Joshi Marg police station. While Qasim Bangali (19), Siraj Khan (24), Salim Ansari (27), Vijay Jadhav (19) and a 17-year-old boy are the accused in the photojournalist’s gangrape on August 22; Bangali, Jadhav, his juvenile nephew, Ansari and Shaikh are the accused in the second case. Except Shaikh, all others have been arrested. On Wednesday, the photojournalist and her male colleague recognized the 17-yearold accused in an identification parade (IP) held in Dongri children rescue home. He was produced before the juvenile justice court and remanded in police custody. Police are trying to trace his mobile phone. Sources said investigators have sought call data records of three unknown numbers retrieved from the cellphones of the five accused in the photojournalist’s case to find out if any one of them belonged to the teenager. Joint commissioner of police Himanshu Roy said they will not seek the custody of the other four accused on Thursday, but hold an IP in Arthur Road Jail after they are remanded in judicial remand. The call centre employee has identified her black dupatta which was used to tie up her then boyfriend to a tree before the accused raped her in Shakti Mills in July. In her FIR, which was first registered with the Bhandup police, she said, “The accused threw my dupatta into the bushes after untying him. Cops showed me a dupatta that was seized from the spot after the photojournalist’s gangrape.” Police said the dupatta had been used to tie up the photojournalist’s male colleague to a tree after tying his hand with belts. They are verifying if the same dupatta was used in both cases Can MCOCA be invoked in Shakti Mills gangrape? Police commissioner Satyapal Singh has asked the crime branch to check if the stringent MCOCA can be invoked in the Shakti Mills gangrape case. But legal experts said that it would be difficult to do so as two previous chargesheets of an accused in a decade, pecuniary gains and underworld activity are a few key features of the Act. Pal also instructed the senior inspectors of all 93 police stations to collect information of juvenile criminals in their jurisdictions and create a database DUPATTA A COMMON THREAD
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 02:36:45 +0000
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