Mumbai: Man sneaks into house, tries to rape mentally challenged woman

A man was caught in Chembur after he allegedly tried to rape a mentally challenged woman, taking advantage of the fact that her house door was open and nobody was home. The Tilak Nagar police arrested him hours after he managed to escape from the house.

The incident occurred around 11 pm on Saturday night, when Shahbaz Abdul Shahid Khan (35) was passing by the woman's house. Noticing that the door was ajar and nobody was home, Khan let himself in.

Bhagwat Sonawane, senior police inspector of Tilak Nagar police station, told mid-day, "Khan was passing by the victim's residence and as her house door was half open, he saw that she was alone at home.

He sneaked in and started undressing the woman." Khan is married and stays in the same neighbourhood. Ten minutes later, the 30-year-old woman's parents returned home from the function they had gone to attend.

When they switched on the lights, they found Khan and their daughter without their clothes. "When the father confronted the accused, he pushed him and ran away from the house," Sonawane added.

The parents, along with the woman, who is unmarried, reported the matter to the Tilak Nagar police station. A team was soon dispatched and they managed to nab Khan from Chembur in the wee hours of Sunday.

"We had sent her for a medical examination and are still awaiting its reports. We are still not clear whether she was raped, because the accused has been denying it throughout the interrogation," said Sonawane.

Khan has been booked under sections 376 (rape), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. He was produced in Vikhroli court on Thursday and remanded in judicial custody.