18 March,2017 08:29 AM IST | | Anurag Kamble
Man lured the woman who had come to Mumbai looking for a job and took turns raping her along with a friend atop a Pydhonie terrace. She fell off the building while attempting to escape
The accused took the woman to a building in Pydhonie and took turns to rape her. Pic/Suresh Karkera
A 27-year-old woman from UP just can't seem to catch a break. Down on her luck after her divorce, she attempted to move to Mumbai from Lucknow on March 7 to look for employment; instead she befriended fellow traveler Santosh Kanojia from Akbarpur who went on to allegedly gangrape her with his friend.
Also read: Delhi shocker! Woman gang-raped by five in flat, jumps off balcony to escape
The 27-year-old woman, in the quest for a job, was on her way to Mumbai on March 8 when she befriended Santosh Kanojia on the train. He told her he had a place to rent in Bhiwandi and that he would help her in the job hunt. She agreed to go with him and had been with him a week. Illustration/Ravi Jadhav
And when she attempted to get away from the four-storey building in Pydhonie they had taken her to, she mysteriously slipped off the terrace. But here's where luck kicked in: She survived the fall because she landed in mud, was rescued by other residents of the building, and her abusers were subsequently arrested.
On Thursday at around 10 pm, he brought her to 4-storey building terrace in Pydhonie, which also had a godown, under the ruse that he had a job lined up for her there
According to the police, when on the train to Mumbai, the survivor told Kanojia that she was headed to Mumbai for a job, so he offered aid by telling her that he had a place to rent in Bhiwandi and would help her in her job hunt. After being in Bhiwandi for a week, under the guise of meeting someone for a job, he brought her to a godown on the terrace of Surangi Mansion in Pydhonie at around 10 pm on Thursday. Here, his friend Farooq Khan showed up and attempted to molest the sleeping woman, and when she resisted, Kanojia forced himself on him and later, Khan did the same.
Later, when she was sleeping there, his friend Farooq Khan came and molested her, to which she protested. That's when Kanojia forced himself on her while Khan kept her down, later doing the vice versa.
Later, when the woman came to at around 3.30-4 am, she saw both of them sleeping and attempted to get away. "As she was trying to get to the door, one of them heard her so she went to the other side of the godown and locked them in. Scared, she couldn't make out the edge of the building and fell down," said DCP (Zone-2), Dr Dnyaneshwar Chavan, adding, "We have to investigate whether she fell down or jumped off to save herself."
When she came to at 3.30 am, she found them both sleeping and attempted to escape by locking them up. In the process, she apparently slipped down the terrace, but ended up surviving as she landed in mud.
Family heard call for help
Meanwhile, the Khan family, also residents on the 4th floor, heard noises at 3.30 am. "We heard a woman crying, âkoi toh mujhe bachao (somebody save me) thrice, then saw someone felling down. When we switched on the light, we found a dupatta on our window," said a Khan family member. "She hit the windows on the second and third floor on her way down and fell in the mud behind the building," the woman said, adding, "We immediately called police. Meanwhile, we locked the exit down so the accused were arrested."
"The survivor was conscious when she was brought to the hospital, but later lost unconscious. We have kept her under observation. She has a head injury and other minor injury and bruises, but she is awake now," said Dr TP Lahane, Dean of JJ.
Cop speak
"A case has been registered under IPC section 376 (D) (gangrape), 341 (wrongful constraint), and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) against the two accused," said Dr Chavan, adding further that the woman had not been able to speak properly and needed to be questioned at length to get more information about the incident."
