Mumbai gang rape: Police files 600-page chargesheet against 5 accused

The Mumbai police on Thursday filed a chargesheet against four accused in last month's gang rape of a 23-year-old photojournalist.

A chargesheet was filed separately against the juvenile accomplice of the accused before a juvenile court.

The accused have been charge-sheeted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including 376(d) (gang rape), 377 (unnatural offence), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) among others.

The 600-page chargesheet filed in a magistrate's court has details of the victim's ordeal, statements of 86 witnesses, forensic evidence collected from the spot, DNA analysis reports, besides phone call records.

The photojournalist was allegedly raped by the five accused when she had gone to the deserted Shakti Mills compound on August 22 with a male colleague on assignment.

The accused -- Salim Ansari, Vijay Jadhav, Mohammed Kasim Hafiz Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali, Siraj Rehman Khan and the minor -- had tied up the victim's male companion with belts and allegedly raped her. Police had claimed it had a "water-tight" case against all the five accused.

Image: Policemen stand guard near the crime scene where a photojournalist was gang raped inside an abandoned textile mill in Mumbai

Photograph: Danish Siddique/Reuters