Court pronounces four accused guilty in Mumbai Shakti Mills gangrape case

A court in Mumbai has found four accused in Mumbai's Shakti Mills gang rape case as guilty for raping two women in a desolate compound.

It maybe recaled that the accused outraged the modesty of a 22-year-old photo-journalist, interning for a lifestyle magazine in August last year. At least three out of the five men assaulted the woman at an abandoned mill close to the railway tracks in the Mahalaxmi area of Mumbai.

The five accused in the Shakti Mills gang rape of a 23-year-old photojournalist on August 22 are Salim Ansari, Vijay Jadhav, Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh, Mohammed Kasim Hafiz Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali and Siraj Rehman Khan.

Days after their arrest, a telephone operator came forward revealing that three of the accused had also gang-raped her on July 31. The chargesheet was filed against four of the accused in October. The accused, all unemployed young men, lived at a nearby slum.

The police say forensic evidence, call data records and DNA reports were stacked against the four convicts. If convicted, they could face a maximum punishment of life in jail.

Almost seven months after the assaults, the prosecution is seeking maximum punishment for the accused under the new, tougher law passed after the fatal gang-rape of a young student in Delhi in December 16, 2012.