Top

Bhutanese woman gangraped; 7 held

The accused have been identified as Shantanu Kukade, Rishikesh Navale, Umesh Shahane, Jalindar Badde, Pratik Shinde, Vipin Bidkar, Sagar Rasge, Avinash Suryavanshi and Mudasin Menon

Police have arrested seven persons for alleged gang-rape of a 27-year-old Bhutanese woman. The complainant approached the Samarth Police Station recently over the incident that took place in 2021. The accused have been identified as Shantanu Kukade, Rishikesh Navale, Umesh Shahane, Jalindar Badde, Pratik Shinde, Vipin Bidkar, Sagar Rasge, Avinash Suryavanshi and Mudasin Menon.

According to the complaint, the woman landed in Pune for educational and employment purposes in 2020 and later met the accused. Umesh Gitte, senior inspector, Samarth Police Station said, “The complainant gathered strength to finally approach the police after a recent sexual assault by Kukade. The foreign woman was introduced to Kukade by Navale.

While the accused provided financial and accommodation facilities to the complainant, later they sexually assaulted her.” As part of probe, police raided the office of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) run by Kukade..