Mangaluru (The Hindu): The Vartak Nagar police in Thane have arrested five men for allegedly raping a 22-year-old mentally challenged woman from Friday evening to Saturday morning last week. The police said the victim was first exploited by one of the five accused, after which the other four accused raped her at a different spot.

According to police officials, the victim stays with her mother in the Vartak Nagar, Thane.

Around 12:30 am on Saturday, her mother filed a complaint with the police saying the girl had left for her aunt’s place on Friday evening but had neither reached her aunt’s place nor returned home. Even as the police and the woman’s family were searching for her, she reached home at around 5:30 am on Saturday in a dishevelled and disoriented condition.

Her mother asked her where she had been, and in gestures, the victim conveyed to her mother that she had been sexually assaulted. Her mother immediately took her to the Vartak Nagar police station.

Lost her way

“The survivor lost her way while going to her aunt’s place on Friday and reached the residence of the first accused, a fruit vendor who stays in the same area as her,” said Thane police spokesperson Police Inspector Gajanan Kabdule.

“He was alone at home at the time, and he forced himself on her, after then let her go. The victim, traumatised by the incident, was trying to find her way home when the second accused, an autorickshaw driver, approached her and offered to take her home. Instead, he took her to the Lokmanya Nagar bus depot, and called three of his friends there,” Inspector Kabdule said.

The police said the four accused consumed liquor in a secluded area near the bus depot and also made the victim drink. They then took her into a tempo parked outside the depot and raped her.

The auto driver then dropped her home and even exchanged numbers with her, telling her that he would contact her again, the victim told the police in her statement.

Accused nabbed

Using the auto driver’s number as the clue, the police traced and picked him on Sunday, and subsequently nabbed his three friends. Meanwhile, the first accused was picked up from his residence, and all the accused were placed under arrest on Sunday.

“The accused were charged with kidnapping and rape under the Indian Penal Code and have been remanded to police custody till January 16. We are still investigating whether there is a link between the two instances of exploitation,” Mr Kabdule added.