In a horrific incident, a 19-year-old college student was allegedly raped by two men at a flat at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) quarters at Postal Colony in the city’s Chembur area. Both accused have been arrested and sent to police custody till Monday. The incident reportedly incident occurred between 10 pm and 12.30 a.m. on the intervening night of November 15-16.
The victim, a commerce student, lives with her mother and sister in Palghar district. She was in Mumbai to visit her father, who works at the BARC and has a flat allotted to him in one of the buildings in the complex situated opposite Maa Municipal Hospital, according to a report by Free Press Journal.The first accused, identified as 26-year-old Ajit Kumar Yadav, is the son of another BARC staffer and lived in a flat near the house of the victim’s father. He knew the victim, police said according to the FPJ report.
Police said that on the day of the incident, Ajit’s parents had gone out for the night and he invited his friend, Prabhakar Yadav (30), a Govandi resident, to his house.The victim went to Ajit’s house to borrow some ingredients for cooking, where the duo offered her bottle of spiked cold drink. On taking few sips of the drink, the victim lost consciousness, following which both men took turns to rape her, police reportedly said.
After the girl regained consciousness around 12:30 am, she realised what happened to her and ran to her flat. Later she informed about the incident to her few close friends living in the same building.On November 16, the victim approached the police and filed complaint. Both men were booked under sections 376 (rape), 376 (d) (gang rape), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code and were arrested by the police on the same day.They were later presented in court where they were remanded to police custody till November 20.