Mumbai photojournalist gang-raped: two accused arrested, hunt on for three others

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police has arrested two of the five men accused of a gang-raping a 22-year-old photojournalist in Mumbai on Thursday evening. More than 20 teams, including 10 from the elite Crime Branch, have been formed to track down the three others. Both the accused will be produced before a court in the city later today. Mumbai's Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh had said yesterday that the arrested man, in his early 20s, has confessed to the crime and has helped them identify four of his alleged accomplices. The Mumbai Police had released the sketches of the five accused early on Friday morning based on the detailed statement given to them by the young photojournalist. The woman, reportedly an intern with an English magazine in Mumbai, is undergoing treatment at Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital. Doctors said she had both external and internal injuries but was stable now and "doing well." The attack took place at about 6 pm on Thursday evening as the woman and a male colleague were taking photographs of old buildings at the abandoned Shakti Mill compound. The pair was approached by two men and told they should not be there. The men, who were joined by three others, then tied up the woman's colleague with a belt and raped her repeatedly. Inside the mill compound, the accused allegedly tied up the woman's colleague with a belt and then raped her repeatedly. The young woman was unconscious when they fled the spot. When she regained consciousness around 8 pm, she untied her friend and they went to Jaslok Hospital on Peddar Road, around four kilometres away, where doctors called in the police. A first information report was registered post midnight against unknown people. The statements of the girl and her colleague were recorded on Friday morning. The incident has stunned the city, seen as far safer for women than others. It has also fuelled protests across the country and stirred memories of a similar attack last December in Delhi, when a 23-year-old woman was gang-raped by six men in a moving bus. Her male companion was also beaten up. She died two weeks later from severe injuries. A trial in the case is in its final stages. NDTV