Five men have been arrested for allegedly raping a 20-year-old woman at gunpoint in Thane district. While the woman was allegedly raped on Tuesday, the arrests were made on Wednesday.
“The woman and her male friend had parked their two-wheeler on the road and were sitting behind a water pipeline on Tuesday night when the five men found them. They held a knife to the throat of the woman’s friend and raped the woman multiple times at gunpoint,” said a senior police officer. Following this, the men fled with the phones of the woman and her friend. “The two approached people living near the pipelines and asked for help… The woman has been admitted to a private hospital. She has suffered internal injuries and is stable,” said an officer.
The accused, all of them unemployed, have petty cases registered against them in the past, said police. They have been identified as Kishor Lakhat (20), Gurunath Bari (20), Harshad Matale (30), Avinash Jadhaw (23) and Ganesh Pawar (19).
“Lakhat is a known anti-social element… We have seized a gun and choppers from the five men. They used to frequent the spot,” the officer said.
“Lakhat has confessed that they had similarly targeted other couples earlier,” he added. The five have been remanded to police custody till January 31.
