The incident took place at around 2.30 am when the victims had returned from their workplace, Jai Bharat Bar in their neighbourhood of Makkawadi in Sion-Koliwada. The youths allegedly barged into the girls' room, drove the landlord out and took turns in raping the teenage girls, according Shakil Ahmed of Nirbhay Bano Andolan, a non-governmental organisation spearhearing an agitation against the atrocity.

The arrested youths have been identified as Ganpati Davendra (20), Vanketesh Davendra (21), Shekar Davendra (18), Shamugan Devandra (19) and Jaswant Lad (21).

The NBA activists have accused the police of treating the case lightly, alleging that while the complaint was lodged at 3 am on Monday, the victims were taken to the Police Hospital at Nagpada only at around 5 pm, almost about 12 hours after the incident.

Ahmed further pointed out that the victims and the rapists wereherded together in the same police van, making the girls vulnerable to threats from their tormentors. When a social worker pointed this lapse to the police officer, she was told why she was helping the `fallen girls', Ahmed told Newsline.

Explaining the delay, senior police inspector Prahlad Shinde said the investigating officer was working through the night till late in the evening next day to prepare the panchnama

and collect all evidence. A social worker, who was witness to the process, was allowed to be with the girls so that she could comfort them. ``The officer had to take charge of the clothes, other items at the time of the incident. If the case was given to more than one investigator there are chances that the evidence could be tampered with,'' Shinde added.