> Holy S**t:Pervert Mumbai

A 22-year-old woman was gang-raped by four men in the wee hours of Monday at Dahisar east. Two of them, including the prime accused, Rajesh, have been arrested.
The victim was threatened with a knife at her home by the main accused Rajesh alias Mithun alias Don (25), dragged naked through the lane and taken into a bush where she was raped. He was then followed by three other men, all of whom had been drinking together before the incident.
On Sunday, the victim had gone to work for a catering company at Santacruz. She returned home around 1.30 am to her Gurdar lane residence where she was staying with her sister and brother-in-law. As they had gone for a religious discourse in Vasai, the victim had to take the keys from her neighbour. When she opened the door of her house, Rajesh followed her into the house. He then threatened her with a knife and forced her to undress. He dragged her through the Gurdar lane and raped her in a nearby bush.
A neighbour, Santosh Singh (name changed) tried to intervene but the 22-year-old youth was beaten up severely. Singh then rushed to the Dahisar police station and returned with the police. But by the time the police arrived on the scene, the victim was lying bleeding in the bushes and the men had fled. Police managed to nab Rajesh by around 6 am on Monday after the victim identified him. She, however, could not provide the description of the others as it was dark in the bushes.
The old ground-floor chawls are located in a lane off the Western Express Highway and the residents are mainly lower-middle class Gujaratis involved in jobs like tailoring. There are hardly any streetlights and many tubelights on the road too are broken, leaving the area dark at night. The area is deserted by 12.30 am, say residents, because, unlike in other slums, water does not come at night but between 4 am and 7 am.
The victim’s brother-in-law told TOI that Rajesh was a terror in the area. An unemployed man, he used to threaten the residents but no one had the courage to complain against him. Neighbours said that the men indulged in drinking and teased the women from the locality. “If we try to raise our voice they beat us up. We avoid going out once it is dark,’’ said a resident.
The victim used to work with catering agencies during the wedding season. As she would return late, her brother-in-law, a tailor, used to pick her up from the bus stop. But on Sunday the entire neighbourhood had gone to Vasai for the discourse. They returned on Monday morning. “Rajesh knew that the locality was deserted and that is why he dared do such a thing,’’ said a resident. The men who raped the girl had been drinking in the area. The police recovered liquor bottles from the scene.
The victim, who has been married for the last four years, has been staying with her sister for the last two years, due to problems with her inlaws and husband who stay in Gujarat.