Manhunt continues in Pune gang rape case; CCTV footage of suspects emerges | WATCH
Pune: Twenty five teams of policemen are reported to be on the manhunt for three unidentified persons behind the gang rape of a 21-year-old in Bopdev Ghat area in Maharashtra's Pune, at approximately 10.45 pm on Thursday. Meanwhile, chilling details of the crime are slowing emerging. According to the police, the suspects also tied the woman’s male friend using his own clothes and belt and assaulted him in an isolated space in the outskirts of Pune city.
Police investigation showed that the three suspects, armed with machetes and bamboo sticks, stole the woman's jewelry and later raped her. The three men also threatened the couple with severe consequences if they spoke about the incident to anyone, according to police. The following day, police issued sketches of two suspects as they ramped up their efforts to locate the perpetrators and called on the public for assistance in capturing them.
According to the Kondhwa police, the area where the crime occurred, the woman had visited the locality with a male friend. "As per preliminary details, the woman and her male friend had gone to the Bopdev Ghart area on late Thursday night where three unidentified persons allegedly raped her," said Ranjan Kumar Sharma, the additional commissioner of police.
He stated that the suspects first restrained the woman's friend using his own clothes and belt at the scene before taking turns to rape her. The authorities learned about the incident around 5 am on Friday when the woman and her friend sought help at Sassoon General Hospital, a government facility in Pune. Another officer noted that when the woman resisted the trio’s sexual assault, they threatened to harm her friend.
A CCTV visual of the suspects has been doing the rounds on social media.
"After the accused left the place, the young woman went to her male friend and untied him. Both then reached the woman's house where she lived with her sister. Later, they went to a private hospital in Kothrud, where staff advised them to go to Sassoon Hospital," said the officer.
The woman is traumatised but alert, and she provided her statement to the police while recovering in the hospital. The officer mentioned that the incident took place in a remote area, and the suspects also attacked her male companion. This location is commonly visited by couples during the day. In the meantime, police dispatched a forensic team and a dog squad to the crime scene to gather evidence and track down the perpetrators.
"We have prepared sketches of two of the suspects on the basis of descriptions given by the male friend of the woman," said the official.
The police have shared three contact numbers -- 8691999689, 8275200947, and 9307545045 -- urging the public to reach out if they have any information about the case. NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule criticised Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who oversees the home department, claiming he has failed to protect women's safety in Maharashtra and calling for his resignation. The Baramati Lok Sabha MP described the assault case in Pune as "horrific" and stated that the law and order situation in the state has worsened, with an increase in crimes against women under the Mahayuti government. She noted that the Maharashtra police were once regarded as the best in the country.
"The police force is the same, and it is good. But the problem lies with Mantralaya (state secretariat) as one Porsche comes and knocks people down, the blood samples are swapped, and a drug dealer escapes from hospital," Sule said, referring to the Pune Porsche crash, in which two techies were killed in May.
It is not the police but the leadership that is responsible for these incidents, she said while also referring to an incident in a school in Badlapur town in Thane district, where two minor girls were sexually abused by a sanitation worker. "I am seeking his (Fadnavis) resignation because action against any crime is not immediate. The home minister has failed on the issue of women's safety, and he should take moral responsibility and resign," Sule added.
Agencies