MUMBAI (Reuters) - A photojournalist was gang-raped in Mumbai,
police said on Friday, evoking comparisons with a similar assault in New Delhi
in December that led to nationwide protests and a revision of the country's
rape laws.
The attack on
Thursday night triggered protests and an outcry on social media, with many
users shocked that it took place in Mumbai, widely considered to be India's
safest city for women.
One man was arrested
on Friday and 20 police teams were pursuing four men who had been identified,
said Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh.
"Mumbai police
will do its best to collect all the evidence - clinching evidence, scientific
evidence - so that a fool-proof case is made out in the court, and they get
maximum punishment," Singh said. "We will also request the government
that this case be conducted in a fast-track court."
In rowdy scenes in
the Rajya Sabha, opposition lawmakers accused the government of not doing
enough to protect women, despite tougher sex crime laws brought in this year.
The victim, who is in
her early twenties, was admitted to hospital in south Mumbai where she was in
stable condition, a hospital official told Reuters by e-mail.
The attack took place
shortly before sunset in an abandoned textile mill in Lower Parel, a gritty
former industrial district that is now one of the city's fastest-growing
neighbourhoods of luxury apartments, malls and bars.
The woman was at the
mill on an assignment with a male colleague. The pair were separated by the
attackers and her colleague was tied up with a belt while she was assaulted,
Singh said.
Several dozen mainly
male supporters of the right-wing Shiv Sena political party gathered with flags
and banners outside the police station where the case was filed. A further
protest was called for later in the afternoon.
Women's safety in
India has been in the spotlight this year following the brutal gang-rape of a
23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in December, which led
thousands of Indians to take to the streets in protest. The woman died of her
injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
The trials of the
four men and one juvenile accused of the December attack are expected to
conclude within the next three weeks. The verdict on the juvenile suspect is
set for Aug 31. Closing arguments in the trial of the four adult suspects
started on Thursday.
Following public
outcry over the Delhi attack, India introduced tougher rape laws in March,
which include the death penalty for repeat offenders and for those whose
victims were left in a "vegetative state".
In contrast to Delhi,
Mumbai has long been considered a safer place for women to travel alone, even
at night.
"(Mumbai) has
this sense of security ... but these things make us feel that maybe we are not
really that safe," said A. L. Sharada, director of Population First, a
Mumbai-based NGO that works on women's rights issues.
"Women should be
able to move freely and take up work. Why should we be worrying about something
bad happening to us all the time?"
(Reporting Aradhana
Aravindan in MUMBAI and Shyamantha Asokan and Aditya Kalra in NEW DELHI;
Writing by Shyamantha Asokan; Editing by John Chalmers)
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