Mumbai Crime: Powai boy dead, friend critical after gang rape

Representational picture

Sexual assault by a group of boys in Powai pushed two minors over the edge, traumatising them to the extent that both consumed poison. While one of them, aged 10, has already succumbed to it, the other, who is 13 years old, is battling for his life in KEM hospital. Parents of the latter have lodged a complaint with the Powai police, who have launched a search for the accused.

According to the victim, the incident happened on July 6 when he and his friend were going to tuition classes. After the incident, the two carried on and reached class. The tuition teacher noticed that both appeared scared. She tried to communicate with them, but they refused to say anything to her either. "The teacher called me and told me about this behaviour. But I just assumed it must be some phase," admitted the distraught father.

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The case came to light on the night of July 12, when the teenager's father noticed his son vomiting. He took him to the nearest private hospital, where check-up revealed poison in his system. The hospital, without even stabilising the boy, asked the parents to go to a government-run hospital. They then took him to Sion Hospital, where he was admitted to the ICU.

"After treating him for a couple of days, they asked us to shift him to KEM Hospital," the boy's father said, adding that his condition is critical.

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"His intestines have been badly damaged due to the poison; he's in a really bad state," said a doctor treating him.

The revelation
During preliminary medical check-up, doctors found out that the 13-year-old had been sexually assaulted. Shocked, when his parents asked him, he mumbled the name of a person who had taken him to a different neighbourhood.

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"He told us that he was with a friend of his (the 10-year-old) when a common friend took the two to a place where three-four boys sodomised the two," his father added.

After getting this information, the boy's mother registered a complaint. When the police inquired about the other boy, they found that he had succumbed. "He was taken to the trauma centre in Jogeshwari, but he passed away," a relative of his said.

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The teenager told his mother that after sodomising him and his friend, the accused threatened to kill them and their families if they told anyone about it. That's why they kept quiet, and later, decided to end it all by consuming poison, the boy confided.

"We have filed a complaint under IPC section 377 (unnatural sex) and relevant sections under the POCSO Act," said DCP (zone X) Navinchandra Reddy. "We have initiated a probe. We need some clues from the victim, so that we can nab the accused as soon as possible."