Two more men have been arrested in the gang rape of a photojournalist in India. Police in Mumbai announced that they arrested a fourth suspect on Saturday and a fifth suspect on Sunday after 19-year-old Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh reportedly confessed to the crime and named the other men involved while in police custody on Friday.
The photojournalist, a 22-year-old woman on assignment for an English-language magazine, was attacked by five men while she was taking photos in Shakti Mills, an abandoned textile mill compound/nightmare factory in Mumbai’s Lower Parel district. Her male companion, meanwhile, was tied up and beaten, according to police reports.
According to the New York Times, police were, in arresting the fourth and fifth suspects, acting on information provided by Shaikh:
“On Saturday night, the crime branch arrested the fourth suspect, Kasim Bangali, near the Reay Road railway station,” said Shivaji Patil, a police constable at the N.M. Joshi Marg police station, where the case was registered. The fifth suspect, Salim Ansari, was arrested in New Delhi on Sunday, Mr. Patil said, and is being returned to Mumbai.
A man arrested on Friday was identified as Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh, also known as Mohammed Abdul, an unemployed 19-year-old, The Times of India reported. He was said to have confessed to the crime and named the other men involved.
The police seem to be taking this matter pretty seriously as it’s only the latest instance of what has seemed like an epidemic of sexual violence in India over the last several months.
[NY Times]
Image via AP, Rajanish Kakade