The five youngsters arrested for allegedly gang-raping a 23-year-old American student of TISS have started blaming each other for the crime,
The five youngsters arrested for allegedly gang-raping a 23-year-old American student of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Tiss) have started blaming each other for the crime, police said. In their individual statements to the police, each has pointed a finger at the other suspects while pleading his own innocence.
A senior officer from the Trombay police station said that when the suspects were questioned together they pleaded innocence. “But when they were questioned individually, they started blaming each other,” he said.
He said the two suspects who were arrested near Churchgate on Friday also “pleaded innocence and blamed the others”.
The six youths named by the victim are Vinamra Soni, Jaskaran Singh Bhullar alias Karan (20), Harshawardhan Yadav (22), Anish Borkataki (22), Dev Colabavala (21), and Kundanraj Borgohain (22). The last named was the man at whose flat in Andheri the Tiss student was raped. All except Soni, who is in his early 20s, have been arrested. They were produced in the Kurla metropolitan magistrate’s court on Friday and remanded in police custody till April 28.
In her statement to the police, the victim, who is pursuing a four-month course in gender studies and development at Tiss, had said she had gone out drinking with the men, students of various colleges in the city, and one of her batchmates. While the batchmate later left, the accused allegedly took her to Borgohain’s flat.
At the flat, the victim alleged, Soni started kissing her despite her protests. Bhullar, too, joined in.
Scared, she locked herself in the bathroom and tried to contact some friends for help but in vain. When she came out, she collapsed.
According to her statement, when she awoke the next morning, she found herself naked with Soni sleeping beside her while Yadav was playing with her hair. She later realised she had been raped.
According to the victim’s statement, Soni and Yadav then took her to a chemist and gave her an emergency contraceptive pill, which she took.
The police believe the victim’s statement is prompting the suspects to use the tactic of blaming each other because she isn’t sure who raped her. This is the usual tactic of suspects in such cases, they say. “But forensic reports will pinpoint the culprits, so we are not unduly worried,” the officer said.
Senior Bombay High Court lawyer Shrikant Shivde said: “The only evidence that can nail the man who raped her is the DNA sampling of the semen traces found on site and on the clothes of the victim.” Sexual intercourse with an unconscious girl is rape under the Indian Penal Code, he added.
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