An air hostess was allegedly gang-raped by a colleague and his roommates in Mumbai. The accused, 23-year-old Swapnil Kumar Bodiya, works with the security wing of the airline.
According to reports, Swapnil took the victim to his rented apartment from a bar late on Tuesday. He then sexually assaulted her with his roommates.
The victim, who had arrived from Hyderabad on Monday, had dropped her luggage at her house and met Swapnil at a mall in Malad. They later went to a bar there. The accused told the police that he drove the victim straight to his residence as she was not in a state to be able to reach her home.
The next morning, according to the police, the victim spotted injury marks on her body and told her boyfriend and father about the ordeal she went through. Her father registered a police complaint after which the accused was arrested.
She told the police that when she arrived at Swapnil's residence, there were two men and a woman. The statement of Swapnil's flatmates was also recorded after which the arrest was made.
"Her father and boyfriend tried contacting her, but they did not get a response," a police officer told Hindustan Times.
The police have registered a case under sections 376-D (gang-rape) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.
Although Mumbai is regarded as a safer city for women as compared to the other metros like Delhi, a series of incidents of crimes against women have rattled the police authorities as well as social activists in the past few days.
Venturing out at night for women has not been much of a problem unlike the national capital, but the alarming rate at which the crime in the city has increased particularly directed against women calls for tougher laws as well as better security measures in place.
