Mumbai Police Arrest Suspect in Rape of Photojournalist

Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency Media persons inspecting the Shakti Mills compound, the site where a young photojournalist was gang raped on Thursday, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

MUMBAIâ€" The police in Mumbai have arrested one man in connection with the reported gang rape Thursday of a 23-year-old photojournalist in the Lower Parel neighborhood of the city. Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh confirmed the arrest at a news conference in Mumbai on Friday afternoon. “The young woman is currently composed and stable,” Mr. Singh said of the victim, who said she was assaulted by five men.

The police said the attack occurred around sunset Thursday, as the woman and a male colleague were visiting Shakti Mills, an abandoned textile mill complex near the Mahalaxmi train station in Lower Parel. The woman was taking photographs of the area for a magazine story about Mumbai’s chawls, tenements for workers who were employed in the mills.

Lower Parel in Mumbai was the site of many textile mills until the 1980s, when manufacturing began to move out of the city.  In more recent years, the area has undergone redevelopment and become a hub for media and advertising agencies, upscale restaurants and shopping malls. Several luxury apartment blocks are coming up in the area, but some abandoned mills remain.

“The girl was shooting from her mobile phone and her colleague had a camera with him,” Mr. Singh said.  “When they reached there to take pictures some men approached them and asked them how they had come to the mill, saying that it was railway property.”

“They then accused her colleague of being the same man who had committed a murder in the mill recently,” Mr. Singh added. “They tied up the hands of her colleague using their belt and they hit him with a belt, but he was not severely injured.”

The woman and her colleague were initially accosted by two men, who were joined by two more, Mr. Singh said. They then called a fifth man, who, upon arriving, supported the others’ accusation that the male journalist had committed a murder in the compound.  They then separated the woman from her colleague on the pretext of questioning him, according to Mr. Singh.

Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto Agency Police officers inspecting the Shakti Mills compound in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on Friday.

“They took the young woman about 15 to 20 meters away and that is when the gruesome incident occurred,” Mr. Singh said. “There were five men in total, though it is as yet unclear whether they were all involved in raping the girl. This is yet being verified.”

The woman’s colleague helped her get to a hospital around 8 p.m.  The police searched the area for suspects throughout the night, Mr. Singh said.

“With the help of the girl and her colleague’s statement, sketches were made of the five culprits, who were identified with the help of the sketches. All five have been identified and the names of the suspects are with the police,” Mr. Singh said.  The police are looking for them.  “One of the five has been arrested and he admitted he was there along with some others,” Mr. Singh added.

The five suspects are in their early 20s and live in an area adjacent to the abandoned textile mill, Mr. Singh said.  Two of them have criminal records, he said. The police has not released the names of the suspects. Indian law forbids releasing the name of a rape victim.

The police have registered the case under Section 376 D of the Indian Penal Code, which was amended in response to the notorious gang rape on a Delhi bus in December. Under the amended law, rape is punishable by 20 years to life in prison.

“We will do our best to collect all scientific evidence to ensure that this is a foolproof case and that the culprits get maximum punishment,” said Mr. Singh, who said the police would seek to have the case heard in a fast-track court.  Although the Delhi gang rape case was delegated to such a court, seven months have passed without a verdict.

Doctors at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai have confirmed that the young woman is sound and stable.