Sixth accused in 16-yr-old’s gang-rape arrested

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: The Dadar police on Tuesday arrested Vicky Mohite, the sixth accused in the alleged gang-rape of a school-going girl. The police had earlier arrested five persons, including a 44-year-old taxi driver. Vicky, a resident of Worli Koliwada, was picked up from Sion.

A senior police officer said, “We are questioning him. He had escaped after the first arrests were made.” Sources said that Vicky is only 17. However, officers involved in the probe said that they are yetto verify hisexact age. The police said that if Vicky is a minor, they would send him to a remand home.

The 16-year-old victim, a resident of Worli Koliwada, approached the police on June2 andlodged a gang-rape complaint. Police officials said that the girl is a class X student at a Worli Marathimedium school.

The victim is know to at lease four of the accused, as they alllivein thesamelocality. On May 3, two of the accused, Mahesh Anandrao Mane (19) and Hitesh Kalokh (19), called the girl to Mane’s house asking her for help to cook some food.

Once inside, they locked the door and raped her in turns. The suspects had bought condoms for the act, a police officer said. The duo then released her with the warning that she should not talk to anyone, said a police officer.

When the other accused learned of the rape, they threatened to malign her character and sought sexual favours from the girl, the police said.

The Times of India, June 8, 2011

Accused used false docus to buy SIM card from Nagpada

D-LAND KILLING

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: Investigations into the Pakmodia street shoot-out, where gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar’s body guard, Arif Bael was gunned down, showed that the mastermind, Umed-ur-Rehman, had purchased SIM cards on someone else’s documents.

Two gunmen, including a Nepali national, Indralal Bahadur Khatri (28), had gunned down Bael who was standing outside Kaskar’s building in Pakmodia street near Nagpada.
The incident took place at around 9.30 pm on May 17. Locals caught the shooters and handed them over to the police. The crime branch and the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) arrested two more conspirators. “We found that on the day of shoot-out, Umed was in Mumbai but later fled. He was in touch with the shooters through his mobile. We got the mobile number and found that the SIM card was purchased in someone else’s name from a distributor in Nagpada,” said a crime branch officer.

The police have not yet booked the SIM card seller, even though they have been cracking down on distributors who do not maintain proper records and do incomplete verification. In the last six months, the police have filed over four dozen cases against sellers for not carrying out proper verification before handing over a SIM card. “We have questioned the distributor in the Umed case. We found that the documents belong to one person, while another person’s photo has been given to the company,” said the police officer.

The police have also traced Umed’s location to Nepal. “He was in
touch with Nepali shooters. For instance, the gunman in this case, Khatri, is from Nepal. We are trying to ascertain whether Umed is actually in Nepal or if he is using some conference telephone line to divert the police,” said an investigator.

Umed is suspected to have been involved in the Kala Ghoda shootout of 2006 when two drug peddlers were killed outside the sessions court, the murder of bookie Chhote Miya in 2009 and the firing at Null Bazaar in February 2010, which left two persons dead.

The Times of India, June 6, 2011

Lookout notices for con firm’s directors

Aryarup Travel & Club Resort Duped Over 1K Investors

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: Lookout notices have been issued by the city police against two directors of fraud firm Aryarup Travel and Club Resort.

The two directors—Ravindra Deshmukh and his wife Vasuda Deshmukh—are accused of duping over 1,000 investors across the country by offering to double their investments.

The sleuths had received several tip-offs about the couple’s whereabouts, but none yielded any result with the Deshmukhs managing to give the cops a slip each time. The police had even visited the Deshmukhs’ bungalow in Pune but found it locked. Eventually, the investigators decided to issue lookout notices against the con couple.

All airports across the country have been alerted about Ravindra and Vasuda. “They will be caught if they try to flee the country,” said a police officer.

The Deshmukhs floated several investment schemes in Gujarat, Haryana, Jaipur, Bangalore and Maharashtra. People were promised yearly returns of 86% if they invested more than Rs 5,000 in the resort. Investors were offered additional profit if they managed to persuade others to put in money in the scheme. The company had opened accounts of its investors on its website, www.aryarup.in. “The suspects allotted login names and passwords to investors and told them that their profit would be automatically transferred to their accounts,” said an investigating officer.

In February, the police attached several major properties belonging to Aryarup. A plot measuring 50 acres near Jaipur airport and a 25 acre plot at Murbad were attached on a court order. The total worth of these plots is around Rs 12 crore, said sources. Besides, 16 bank accounts in which investors had deposited Rs 12.5 crore have been frozen. The first complaint was registered in October last year. The complainant was duped of Rs 81 lakh.

Sources said the company’s yearly turnover was in excess of Rs 1,000 crore.


The Times of India, June 6, 2011

Men used blackmail to force rape victim into submission

Aware Of The First Assault, 3 Accused Threatened To Tell On Her To Get Their Way

Mateen Hafeez | TNN

A15-year-old schoolgirl was gangraped by six persons at different times in May. The dastardly acts, the victim told the police, began on the night of May 3, when two of the accused—Mahesh Anandrao Mane (19) and Hitesh Kalokh (19)—called her to Mane’s house to help cook food. “The girl went in good faith, but, once she was inside, the two locked the door,” said Ashok Unde, senior inspector at Dadar police station.

Unde added, “They had bought condoms for the act. The duo raped her taking turns and released her with the warning that she should not talk to anyone.”

Others, however, did get to know about the assault. Three other accused, thereafter, used the threat of exposing the May 3 sexual assault to call the victim out and rape her, the police said.

On May 7, Mane and Kalokh’s friend, Ashwin Murudkar, a 20-year-old employee of the railway’s pantry department, threatened the teenager and took her to a deserted place near Worli garden. He then went on to rape her.

Less than three weeks later, Pawan Angre, an 18-year-old employed as a courier boy with a private company in Vile Parle, used the same ploy to sexually assault the teenager.

The following day, one Vicky from the neighbourhood took the girl in a taxi to a deserted area near Worli. He then asked the cabbie, 44-year-old Anand Uttam Landge, to leave and raped the victim. Landge however saw the act and, threatening to tell on them, demanded from Vicky that he be allowed to participate in the assault. “Though the girl kept protesting, Landge and Vicky gang-raped her in the taxi,” said a police officer.

Scared after the late night assault, the victim did not return home. After a long search, her parents and relatives found her near Bhoiwada.

“At first she did not talk to anyone, though her mother and women from the neighbourhood tried to make her speak. She finally revealed how she was gangraped over a month and threatened,” said a police officer.

The police say the girl’s parents approached them on June 2 and lodged a complaint. The police have arrested Mane, Kalokh, Murudkar, Angre and Landge, though Vicky is still absconding. The six have been booked under section 376 (G) for gang rape and 506 (2) for criminal intimidation.

TALE OF HORROR
THE VICTIM: The 15-year-old lives with her family in Worli Koliwada and studies in class X in a Worli-based Marathi school. Her father is employed as a peon in a private hospital, while her mother is a housewife. She has two siblings—a sister and a brother—both younger to her

THE ACCUSED
Mahesh Anandrao Mane | 19 A neighbour of the victim, Mane befriended her recently in a tuition class. He studies in a central Mumbai school and his mother works as a house help. His father is dead

Hitesh Harish Kalokh | 19 A third-year BSc student, he stays near Janata Colony in Worli Koliwada. Kalokh, whose father is a fisherman, ostensibly knew the victim for years

Ashwin Murudkar | 20 Murudkar works in the railways’ pantry department along with his father and his mother is a housewife. Murudkar, too, is a neighbour of the victim. He met the victim several times in May

DASTARDLY ACTS
The victim told the police that Mahesh Mane and Hitesh Kalokh called her to Mane’s house on the night of May 3 to help them cook some food. Once she was inside, they locked the door and sexually assaulted her

The police say some others in the neighbourhood learnt about the act. And, on May 7, Ashwin Murudkar raped the 15-year-old in Worli area after threatening to expose the first assault
On May 30, Pawan Angre raped the girl by using the same threat, police officials say
The following day, one Pawan Angre | 18 Angre is employed as a courier boy with a
private company in Vile Parle. His father works in a mill in Dadar (E)

Vicky | Age not known The only absconding accused in the case. The police said they are seeking more details on him

Anand Uttam Landge | 44 A taxi driver, he sexually assaulted the victim along with Vicky
Vicky from the Worli Koliwada area took the girl in a taxi to a deserted area near Worli and raped her
The taxi’s driver, Anand Landge, saw the assault and threatened to tell on them. Vicky and Landge both raped the girl thereafter

SECTIONS INVOKED 376 (G) of Indian Penal Code – Gang rape 506 (2) of Indian Penal Code – Criminal intimidation

The Times of India, June 4, 2011

Schoolgirl gang-raped by six over a month

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: The Dadar police on Thursday night arrested five people, including a taxi driver, for allegedly gang-raping a 15-year-old girl at different times in May. The police are searching for the sixth accused.

The victim, who is a resident of Worli Koliwada, was sent to the Nagpada police hospital on Thursday

for a check-up and the medical report is awaited. The five arrested accused, meanwhile, were produced before the Bhoiwada court on Friday and remanded in police custody until June 9.
Officers said the girl is a class X student in a Worlibased Marathi school. The victim was known to at least four of the accused, who are aged between 18 and 20, since they live in the same neighbourhood in Worli.


The Times of India, June 4, 2011

‘Shakeel plans to eliminate Bael murder mastermind’

THREAT LURKS BEHIND BARS

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: If sources in the security establishments are to be believed, then don Chhota Shakeel has ordered his men lodged in Maharashtra jails to eliminate Umed-ur-Rehaman once he is nabbed and imprisoned. Umed (29) is suspected to have masterminded the Pakmodia street firing on May 17, in which Iqbal Kaskar’s bodyguard, Arif Bael, was killed.

Kaskar, the younger brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, had been guarded by a dozen of his cronies including Bael since the former was acquitted in two cases in 2007. The Mumbai crime branch is still hunting for Umed. “We have learnt that Shakeel’s men lodged in jails have been asked to eliminate Umed as soon as possible once he is incarcerated. Almost all the jails in Mumbai and nearby cities have a sizable number of Dawood and Shakeel men,” said a source from the security establishment. However, this intelligence input has not been shared with jail authorities. Security in various jails has already been reviewed and beefed up since the shootout at Pakmodia street last month.

Umed’s name had first cropped up in the Kalaghoda shootout in 2006 when two persons were shot dead outside the sessions court. In 2009, his name again came up after a suspected bookie, Zahid alias Chhote Miya, was shot dead. In 2010, he was shown wanted in a firing case near Bhendi Bazaar.

While the ATS is trying to nab Umed, a few people in the crime branch are learnt to have come in touch with him. “His phone location shows he is in Nepal, but he may be using a conference number to mislead the police. The crime branch personnel, who are in touch with him, are trying to convince him to surrender but he is not ready to do so,” said sources in the security establishment. A senior police officer denied that the crime branch was in touch with Umed.

The Times of India, June 3, 2011

Man who sent terror mail not booked for cyber terrorism

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: The twenty-sevenyear-old Tushar Sawant, who had sent a terror email to the CBI warning them about terror strikes across the city, has not been booked for cyber terrorism. The reason being that cops fell that he was frustrated and not mentally stable at the time of sending the mail.

In 2009, the Powai police had arrested a 34-year-old
man who had sent a terror mailtoblowup a Hiranandani residential complex. Even though it was a case of a gay love triangle, the suspect was booked for cyber terrorism.

Sawant, on the other hand, claimed that he was a member of a terror group andthatthey were going to carry out blasts various places in the country. In spite of this, the police haven’t booked him for cyber terrorism.

‘‘Sawant is a software developer. He used to work for L&T for a while but was sacked
sometime ago. Sawant had sent a mail to the CBI on May 29 stating that he was a part of a terror group and that the group was planning to carry out terror strikes. Major cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc would be targeted, the mail read,’’ a police official said.

After receiving the mail, there was a high alert across all the police stations in the country. When the police learnt that it was a prank they trackeddown theIP addressto Sawant. He was arrested on May 31.

‘‘When we interrogated Sawant, he told us that he got the CBI’s email address from the internet. We are verifying whether he has any association with any anti-socialbodies,’’ said an official. When asked as to why the cyber terrorism charges were not applied to Sawant, the official refused to comment.

Sawant has been booked for hacking under the Information Technology Act.
Experts believe that those who send such mails are unaware of the repercussions of such actions. “Most of those who send terror/hoax mails don’t realizethatitis a serious offence. The new amendment for such an offence comes under ‘cyber terrorism’, and the maximum punishment is life imprisonment,” said a cyber expert.

Past Cases
August 7, 2010: Sagar Kashyap (20), son of a CR motorman who was studying computer science, sent an email to two news channels posing as a militant and threatned to blow up their offices.
Nov 11, 2009: The cyber crime cell arrested a 17-year-old Harish Yadav (name changed) who had sent a threat e-mail to Air India to see how the security agencies responded.
May 25, 2009: A Bangalore teenager, Krishna Singh (15), was arrested for allegedly sending a terror email to a private news channel claiming that he had planted five bombs in Mumbai. He had challenged the police to find them before it was too late.

The Times of India, June 2, 2011