The two have been remanded in police custody.
Two men were arrested recently for kidnapping and raping a woman on the intervening night of March 10 and 11, police said.
On March 10, the 29-year-old woman, who resides in a village near Pune, left home after an argument with her husband, police said.
She came to Alandi in a two-wheeler and spend some time in a temple till 10 pm, after which she decided to return home, police said.
Since she could not get a lift anywhere, she went to a nearby bus stand hoping to catch a bus to her village, police said. A short while before midnight, a temp stopped at the spot and the 25-year-old tempo driver offered her a lift, saying he was heading in the same direction as her village, police said.
However, instead of going to her village, he took the tempo on a different route, police said. While the tempo was moving, he and his 30-year-old assistant took turns to rape her. The woman managed to free herself when the duo were exchanging their seats at one point, police said.
Teams from the Pimpri-Chinchwad police commissionerate launched a coordinated search for the suspects who had fled Pune immediately after the incident. Based on technical data, the police learnt that the two had fled to Gujarat. A team that went to Vadodara found their tempo abandoned near a hotel.
As police continued probe, the two were traced in Pune. While the driver was hiding in a slum area in Alandi, the assistant was in Chikhli.
The two have been remanded to police custody.
Four arrested for assault on boy
Four people have been arrested for kidnapping and assaulting a 15-year-old boy in Hadapsar on March 12, police said.
Based on the complaint by the boy’s mother, a resident of Manjari, an FIR was registered at Hadapsar police station Saturday.
According to police, the suspects kidnapped the boy at 5.30 pm on March 12, stripped him and assaulted him with a metal object and belt. They abandoned him near a rail track in Hadapsar afterwards, police said. The suspects also made a video of one of them urinating on the boy while he was unconscious, police said. The video was circulated on WhatsApp.
The boy was taken to Sassoon hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.
According to police, the incident was a fallout of an earlier dispute between the victim and the suspects. Police have launched a search for two others.
BMS forms forum for contract labourers
In order to help address the issues of contract labourers in the three state government-owned electricity companies, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) — the labour wing of RSS — has decided to form a special forum.
The forum, Maharashtra Rajya Beej Contract Workers Sangh, will take on issues related to contract workers in the field of electricity companies in the state, said Sachin Mengale, organisational secretary
Mengale had led a march of contract labourers from Pune to Mumbai to highlight the various issues faced by them. The three electricity companies of the state — the distribution, transmission and generation companies — have at least 30,000 contract employees. “These employees are paid little over the basic minimum wages with little or no other benefits,” said Mengale.
The forum will work to ensure the basic principle of same work, same pay is implemented in sector, he said. “Contract workers work just as hard as the employees of the electricity companies. But when it comes to payment, there is a huge difference that needs to be bridged,” he said.
The contract employees, he said, are not given the mandatory provident fund and other social security covers, which the forum wants to address. Most of the contract employees are not given their payment slip, he added.