An Indian-American student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, was gang-raped by six acquaintances at an Andheri flat on Saturday night.
A night-out turned into a nightmare for an Indian-American student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Deonar, when she was gang-raped by six acquaintances at an Andheri flat on Saturday night. The police suspect they had spiked her drink before raping her.
All the accused study in various colleges in the city and knew the victim through a common friend, according to the police, who have registered a case of rape under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. None of them is a native of Mumbai.
The 23-year-old, who came to India from the US in October 2008 and enrolled for a course in gender studies and development in January 2009, stays at the institute's hostel at Deonar.
Deputy commissioner of police Dilip Sawant said: "She approached the Trombay police station late on Tuesday and reported that six people had raped her. We registered her complaint and, acting on details provided by her, picked up three of the six accused for questioning."
The remaining three have reportedly fled to Jamshedpur. A police team will be sent soon to nab them, Sawant said. Police said one of them is a Qatari national while the other two hail from Guwahati in Assam.
The victim was sent for medical examination. The report is awaited.
The victim had met three of the accused at the birthday party of a female batchmate in February, said an officer who was part of the police team that recorded her statement. She met the other three for the first time on the night of April 11.
According to Sawant, the victim said in her complaint that she went for a night-out with five of the accused and her batchmate on Saturday evening. The group imbibed alcohol at a bar called Café XO near Govandi, where they partied till 10:30pm.
While the accused were drinking and smoking, the victim too had a bottle of beer after the accused pressed her, she told the police.
Soon after, the victim's batchmate returned to the TISS campus as she had a flight to catch to Darjeeling the next morning. The five youths then asked the victim to join them at another pub in Andheri, but instead took her to the house of the sixth accused.
That's where her nightmare began. Quoting her statement, an officer said the accused began molesting her. Scared, she locked herself up in the bathroom. She called up several people from her cell phone, but to no avail.
She came out of the bathroom after she started feeling dizzy. Her head was throbbing with pain. "She passed out soon after," the officer said.
"When she awoke the next morning, she found herself lying naked," said the officer. The accused were sleeping around her. That's when she realised that she had been raped, she said.
Fifteen minutes later, when she had gathered herself and began to leave, two of the accused gave her a contraceptive pill. She popped it and left the house, the officer said.
Sawant said the police would ask the victim why she took two days to lodge her complaint.
Meanwhile, TISS director S Parasuraman denied that any of the accused were students of the institute. He said the institute would safeguard the victim's identity zealously. "We do not wish to traumatise her further," he said. "She is our student and it's our responsibility to provide her legal support and counselling. Some of my colleagues were with her at the police station till 4am on Wednesday."
Parasuraman said the institute has informed the American consulate and the woman's parents.
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