Two days after eight men allegedly raped a 28-year-old survivor in Amboli’s Shyam Nagar slum on Monday night, several local residents were seemingly in a state of denial. While raising questions about the moral character of the victim, these residents denied that the accused — who are also locals — were involved in the crime when The Asian Age spoke to them on Wednesday. The Amboli police said meanwhile that preliminary medical tests conducted on the woman at a civic-run hospital confirmed she had been raped.
The Amboli police station on Tuesday had arrested the eight accused, identified as Nastain Jafarali Sheikh alias Babu (19), Imran Mohammed Sheikh (23) who works as a driver, Mohammed Ghulam Hussain Khan (27), Rakesh Lakshman Khere (21), Zaheer Sharif Khan alias Jayu (23), Nagesh Dhangar alias Katori (19), Ezaj Ahmed Shaikh (23) and Pradip Ghagat (23).
All the arrested accused are residents of the Shyam Nagar slum. But when The Asian Age visited the area, some of the residents seemed sceptical about the involvement of the accused in the crime. “These are men who we have seen growing up. They cannot have done such a gruesome act,” said a local shopkeeper who refused to divulge his name. He added that the “woman was visiting the area and nobody knew her”.
Another local resident requesting anonymity said: “How do we know the woman’s allegations are true We don’t even know whether the man she was staying with was her husband.”
A few other young men in the area, too, quickly came to the defence of the arrested accused. “The men who have been arrested in the case are regular, working youngsters who were seen having a cup of tea close to where the incident happened,” said a 25-year-old man who requested anonymity.
The Amboli police has said that the preliminary medical report confirmed that the survivor had been raped. “The reports show that there was forceful penetration. We have sent the samples for further analysis to the State Forensic Science Laboratory,” said police inspector Balwant Patil, who is the case’s investigating officer. The cops also have medical samples from the accused for analysis, he said.
Investigators said that three of the eight arrested accused in the gang-rape have criminal backgrounds. While one, allegedly the main accused, Pradeep Ghagat, was booked earlier in an alleged house-breaking case, two others were booked earlier for allegedly possessing of drugs.
A police source said that it was Ghagat who had allegedly “incited the other accused to target the survivor”. All the arrested accused have been remanded to custody till November 4.
