Two days after a 21-year-old married woman was allegedly gang-raped by three people inside her house in a slum pocket in Aarey Colony, Goregaon (East), the neighbourhood is in shock. This is the second such incident in the area in a month.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

"A few weeks ago, another young girl was sexually assaulted by her neighbour in our area. We are really concerned about the safety of our women. This place is infested with a number of criminals and the police are not doing much," said a 30-year-old woman, who is a government employee.

The Aarey Colony police have registered a case but are yet to nab the three accused.

On Saturday, around 1.30am, three men from the neighbourhood allegedly barged into the 21-year-old's home and demanded that she get physical with them for which they would pay her. The woman refused and when her husband interfered, the three allegedly assaulted him and tied him up, after which they took turns and allegedly raped her for a few hours.

According to the victim's brother, the three mixed drugs in alcohol and forced her to drink and then assaulted both her and her husband. "The three fled with cash and jewellery from the house before threatening the couple. My sister is a homemaker. She doesn't go out of the house much. There has not been any past rivalry either. She is in trauma and it will take a while for her and her husband to come out of this," he said, adding that the couple will be moving out of the house and have urged the police to speed up the investigation. The victim's husband works in an automobile garage.

The woman is currently recuperating in Sion hospital. The main accused in the case, Velapandi Harijan, 26, is the victim's landlord's son and the other two are his friends, both aged 25. All three are on the run."The landlord's son and his friends are known criminals in the area. In fact, many of them have harassed women before and also have case of petty thefts and assaults registered against them. After this incident, women from the neighbourhood are scared to even sit in their homes," said another resident.

The husband and wife, who hail from Allahabad, had got married seven months ago and started living on rent in the Aarey Colony hutment just two months ago.