Five men booked for raping woman; her two female friends named as accomplices

Thane, May 8 (PTI) Police have registered a case against five men for allegedly drugging and raping a 21-year-old woman at Kalyan in Maharashtra's Thane district, officials said on Thursday.

Two female friends of the victim have also been named in the FIR filed on May 6 at the Kalyan Taluka police station in connection with the incident that took place on March 25, they said.

"The victim resides with her grandmother at Titwala in Thane district and works at a construction company in Kalyan. After an argument with her grandmother on March 19, the woman went to stay with her female friend at another locality in Titwala. Her another woman friend lived in the vicinity," a police official said, quoting the complaint.

After staying there for about a week, the victim decided to return home and told her friend about it. The latter then called a man she was acquainted with, asking her to drop her home. The man brought a car in which four of his male friends were already present. The victim's two female friends also accompanied them, he said.

However, instead of heading towards her residence, the car proceeded to a company in Kalyan. When the victim asked them why they were taking a different route, the driver told her that they were going to see the construction of a chawl and would drop her off afterwards, the complaint said.

They then took her to a room, where her female friend injected her with a sedative substance due to which she fell unconscious. When she regained consciousness four days later, she found herself in a naked state in the restroom of the house. She realised that the men in the car had sexually assaulted her, it added.

The accused then threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the incident or approached the police. The victim managed to return home and narrated her ordeal to her grandmother. After discussions with her relatives, she lodged a complaint against the five men and her two female friends, the police official said.

Based on her complaint, the police have registered a case against the seven accused under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 70 (gang-rape), 64(2)(m) (repeated rape of same woman), 123 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc with intent to commit an offence), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 3(5) (common intention), he said.

Nobody has been arrested so far, and the police are carrying out a probe, he added. PTI COR NP