Mumbai: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Thane Police has arrested two more persons in connection with the alleged blackmailing and repeated gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl, an official said on Friday.
With this, the number of arrested persons went up to 26, while two minors have also been detained.
The girl was allegedly raped multiple times at different places in Thane district including Dombivli, Badlapur, Murbad and Rabale between January 29 and September 22 this year. The survivor has named 33 men as accused, police had said on Thursday.
"We have arrested two more persons. Both were nabbed from Navi Mumbai on Thursday night, one of them from Rabale area. So far, 26 persons have been arrested and two minors detained. Search is on for remaining accused," a police official said.
Based on the girl's complaint, the Manpada police in Dombivli on Wednesday registered a case against 33 persons under IPC sections 376 (rape), 376 (n) (repeated rape), 376 (d) (gang-rape), 376 (3) (rape on a woman under sixteen years of age) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
As per the girl's statement to police, she met main accused Vijay Phuke and Tushar Kasbe in December 2020 through a common friend, and Phuke began to chat with her on mobile phone.
On January 29, Phuke called her to a spot in Dombivli East and took her in an auto rickshaw saying they were going to meet their common friend. But she was taken to some other place where four persons including Phuke gang raped her, she alleged. The accused blackmailed her by threatening to circulate her pictures and recorded a video of the sexual assault on their mobile phones, she said.