05 January,2014 09:50 AM IST | | Sagar Rajput
Four days after a 55-year-old woman was found raped and murdered on the Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road, the Pant Nagar police have arrested three ragpickers who have confessed to the crime
The accused with officers at Pant Nagar police station
The Pant Nagar police on Saturday claimed to have solved the gangrape and murder case of a 55-year-old woman, by arresting three men. The woman's body was found on Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road on January 1. While the cops had initially reported it as a case of accidental death, a post mortem revealed she was raped before being murdered.
The accused with officers at Pant Nagar police station
On Saturday, the police arrested three men identified as Asif Shaikh (21), Raju Jaiswal (21) and Milind Tayde (22). The cops claim the three accused were working as rag pickers along with the deceased's son.
An officer from Pant Nagar police station said, "A team was formed by the deputy commissioner of Zone 7 and since the last few days we have been questioning all rag pickers in the Pant Nagar area because we received information that the woman had been in a few quarrels with rag pickers of the area. But we didn't have their identities."
According to their confession, Shaikh, Jaiswal and Tayde had dinner and consumed alcohol in one Rasika bar on Link Road after which they roamed the streets looking for a target.
An investigating officer told SUNDAY Mid Day, "As they were returning, they chanced upon the woman on Andheri-GhatkoparLink Road. In their confession the trio said after assaulting the woman, they realised she may have recognised them and would surely inform the cops.
This scared them and forced them to kill her by smashing her head with a stone and then strangulating her." They then left the body near a bus depot on Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road and escaped. Later during the questioning of all ragpickers in the area, the cops learnt about these three, who were picked up on Saturday from PG Wines at Ghatkopar. They then confessed the crime and were arrested.
The three accused have been booked under Sections 376 (G) (gangrape), 377 (unnatural offence) and 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code and have been remanded to police custody.
