Second Suspect Arrested in the Mumbai Gang Rape

MUMBAIâ€" The Mumbai police said Saturday that they had arrested a second suspect in the gang rape of a photojournalist who was attacked this week while on assignment.

Vijay Jadhav, 19, was arrested from the Madanpura area of the city early Saturday morning, said a Mumbai police officer, Vinod Singh.

The photojournalist, a 22-year-old woman, was assaulted by five men on Thursday night in Shakti Mills, an abandoned textile mill compound in the Lower Parel district of Mumbai, where she was taking photographs for an English-language magazine.  A male colleague who had accompanied her was tied up and beaten, according to police reports. The attack, which echoed the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in New Delhi in December, has sparked protests and outrage in the Indian press.

The victim is being treated at Jaslok Hospital, where doctors said Friday night that she had suffered internal and external injuries but was now in stable condition.

On Friday, the Mumbai police arrested one of the five suspects and said that they had identified the others based on the young woman’s testimony. According to reports in The Times of India, the man arrested on Friday was identified as Chand Babu Sattat Shaikh, alias Mohammed Abdul, who was described as an unemployed 19-year-old.  He was reported to have confessed to the crime and named the other men involved, who are still at large.

The Hindustan Times reported that the five accused were all unemployed men who frequented the mill area.  Speaking to the Indian television channel IBNLive, a grandmother of one of the suspects claimed that her grandson, who is a minor, was not present at the time of the assault.

Mumbai’s police commissioner, Satyapal Singh, said Friday that more than 20 police teams were searching the city for the remaining suspects. He said two of the five suspects had criminal records. “This is a very, very serious matter,” Mr. Singh said, adding, “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.”

The incident has reignited debate in Parliament over violence against women in India. ”This country cannot afford to have our women and children insecure in the hands of those who attack them,” Law Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters on Friday.