Two brothers,friend held for gang rape of college girl

The arrested have been identified as Parag Mhatre,his brother Pankaj and their friend Hiren Patil.

“On May 14,Parag,with whom the victim was on friendly terms,took her to Sai Puja lodge in Mira Road,where he called four friends and they gangraped her,” Maithili Jha,Assistant Superintendent of Police,said.

The accused made video recordings of the incident on mobile phones and threatened the victim not to inform anyone about the rape,failing which they would distribute the MMS clips,she told police in her complaint.

The victim further told police that some days later Parag’s brother,Pankaj,called her up and blackmailed her by asking her to come to the same lodge again where he and his friend,Hiren once again raped her by turns,police said.

“It was only when she felt that the video clippings were being used to blackmail her that she mustered courage to approach her family members and with their help she filed a complaint with police yesterday,” Jha said.

Four others,also involved in the crime,were absconding,he added.

Parag,Pankaj and Patil were arrested from their homes in Majipada area of the suburb last night.

The trio were produced before a magistrate’s court which remanded them to police custody till June 29.

The three arrested have been booked under Sections 376(g),501 and 507 of the IPC for gangrape,printing defamatory material and criminal intimidation respectively.

All the accused are students of the Lokmanya Vidyalaya in the Majipada area and are in the age group of 20 to 25 years,police officials said.

“The victim knew the accused Parag by an alias,Ritesh,since he would hang around outside her college and they had become friendly with each other over the last seven months,” Jha said.

Parag had allegedly promised to marry the girl and on May 14,had taken her to the room in a lodge,she said.

Parag’s friends had allegedly been waiting at the lodge room and they then raped her,police said.

The statement of the girl is expected to be recorded soon and she is also to be sent for medical examination.

“Medical evidence may be difficult to obtain given that the incident took place long back but we have the MMS clips and other circumstantial evidence against the accused,” Jha said.

The police,however,said there was no evidence that the accused had attempted to blackmail the victim.