By Deeptiman Tiwary

Posted On Friday, April 17, 2009 at 02:28:42 AM

Complainant: Name withheld, Religion: Hindu, Age: 23, Occupation: student

I came to India from USA in October 2008 to attend a religious pilgrimage... I am a student of Gender and Development at the TISS, Deonar. I have been in Mumbai to attend the said course since January 2009. After coming to Mumbai, I met Annie Brown, 21, who is also a student of TISS and stays in Hostel no. 6. Shruti Chakravarthy is the course co-ordinator.

On 11/4/2009, at about 10.30 pm, I went to Annie's room... She said she was working… and once done, she would go out with her friends... She asked me whether I would like to go along, and I said that I would...

After that, Annie and I left TISS at about 11 pm and met her friends just outside the gate of the Nowroji Campus. Her friends were: 1) Vinamra Soni, 2) Jaskaran Singh Bhullar, also known as Karan, 3) Hersh, 4) Anish, and 5) Devsi. I had met Vinamra, Karan and Anish at Annie's birthday party in February. All of us proceeded to Cafe XO, which is a lounge bar at Deonar.

At Cafe XO, the boys ordered 10 bottles of Kingfisher strong beer (650 ml). They kept saying that they wanted to drink a lot and get drunk. I did not want to drink... but they kept insisting that I drink with them. Finally, I ordered a Cranberry Vodka...

After some time, Hersh said that he wanted to smoke and... asked me to join him. I said I did not smoke but would accompany him... He also told me that I should try the drug LSD.

We went back inside and the waiter brought some more beer... Hersh kept pressuring me to drink more. So, I drank a little more beer... Outside, one of the boys rolled a joint and some of the guys smoked it. Then we went back in.

Once more Hersh insisted that I drink... He poured beer in a glass and put it in front of me, asking me to finish it immediately. I did not want to but I drank the beer. After some time, I started feeling dizzy and a bit light-headed.

Then, all of us went outside again... I said we should leave, and we all left... a little after 1 am.

Karan and Hersh asked what my plans were for the night. I said I wanted to meet up with my friend Ahmed in Andheri at Club Bling, Hotel Leela Kempenski. I told them that they were welcome to join me. The boys insisted that Annie should join us, but Annie said that she had to leave... After that, at about 1.30 am, I sat in an autorickshaw along with Vinamra and Karan. Anish, Hersh and Devsi, sat in another. We told the driver to take us to Club Bling.

After 20 minutes, the other rickshaw stopped... and Hersh told me that before going to Club Bling, we would first go to their friend's house at Andheri... and then go to Club Bling. I said that I didn’t want to go.

After about half an hour, the rickshaw stopped somewhere in Andheri, near a building. We got out and went to the sixth floor... We saw a man aged about 24 to 25 years. He took us into his flat. He was introduced as Kundan.

After sometime, I went into the bedroom. Vinamra and Jaskaran were in the bedroom. Kundan came in the room, put on some music and left the room. Vinamra and I sat on the thin mattress that was kept on the floor against the wall in the room. We then lay down on the mattress. He hugged me and started kissing me. I told him to stop, but did not heed my request. He said that he loved me and started kissing me again. Karan also came there and started kissing me. Karan lifted the T-shirt up, and also pushed my bra up. He started sucking my breasts. I tried to stop him but he continued to do so.

I went into the bathroom, and tried to call my friend Ahmed… but he did not answer his phone. I then also called my friend Vikram Pathak, who lives in Los Angeles, USA, but as he was busy, he could not speak to me. As I was in the bathroom for a long time, someone knocked on the bathroom door. I came out of the bathroom. At this point, I was unable to walk properly. I went into the bedroom again, and lay down on the mattress. I was not feeling well at all. I was also scared and feeling very uncomfortable. I just wanted to leave that place. I tried to get up, but I could not stand steadily. I fell down on the floor.

I woke up at about 10 am. At that time, I was unable to open my eyes. With great difficulty, I opened my eyes. I saw that Vinamra was sleeping on my right hand side. Hersh was sitting near me, playing with my hair. Karan was sleeping next to Hersh. I felt very disgusting and dirty, and scared. I did not like him playing with my hair. Then he covered my body with a blanket, up further, to my shoulders. I realised that my bra was undone. I also realised that my belt was unbuckled and my jeans had been pulled off, all the way down, and were around my ankles. My underwear was also pulled down to my ankles. I was very scared and worried. I was scared that they had raped me, that they had stuck their penises inside me. I also was on my periods, my menses, so I checked to see if I could feel my tampon, still inside of me. At first I could not, and I was very worried. I pulled my pants up, zipped up my pants and buckled my belt, and then went into the bathroom. In the bathroom, I found that my tampon was still inside me, it was just pushed very far up. I was experiencing a lot of pain in the area around my vagina.

When I went outside the bathroom, all the boys started waking up. Hersh insisted that I should go to a chemist. So Hersh, Vinamra, and I got into a rickshaw and drove to a chemist, just around the corner from their friend's house. When we got to the chemist, Hersh insisted that I should take a contraceptive pill. I thought that he had sex with me, and that is why he was telling me to take the pill. Hersh asked the chemist for an I-Pill. I took the pill. I was feeling very scared and uncomfortable and so I left immediately… and went back to my hostel.

On 12/04/2009, I informed my course co-ordinator, Ms Chakravarthy, about the incident. I went to Rajawadi Hospital with her. I was medically examined. I handed over my underwear, bra, T shirt and jeans worn at the time of the incident to the doctor who conducted the medical examination. The doctor referred me to the police. I waited for the police, but they did not turn up. Thereafter, we left the hospital.

I was so traumatised by the incident… I was unable to come to the police station till today. After speaking to my mother and friends, and Ms Chakravarthy, I felt supported, and comfortable to come to the police station and register a complaint.

I state that from my condition, and as my clothes had been removed, and as there was pain around my vagina, I feel that I was administered a drug in the beer that I was forced to drink by Hersh at Cafe XO, and later, taking advantage of the effect of the drug, or stupefying substance, I was raped by Hersh, Vinamra, Karan, Kundan, Anish and Devshi. All of them, conspired together to commit this offence.

I read the statement. It is true and correct, and as per my narration.

By Deeptiman Tiwary and Dipti Sonawala
Posted On Friday, April 17, 2009 at 02:28:56 AM

The six boys, accused of raping the TISS student from the US, never thought that the girl would complain to the police about being sexually abused.

In fact, during their interrogation, the three boys - who have been in police custody since Tuesday - said that the girl behaved “so normally after the incident that they didn’t think she would file a police complaint”.

“They were so emboldened that they even gave the girl a contraceptive pill after the rape, and the fact that she consumed it without saying anything, assured them that she was not going to file a police complaint,” a Trombay police officer disclosed.

The victim had gone partying with her hostel-mate, Annie Brown, and five of Brown’s male friends on Saturday.

The group ate and drank at Deonar’s Cafe XO, where the victim was allegedly forced to drink beyond her capacity, after which she and the five boys proceeded to Andheri.

There, the group crashed at the Seven Bungalows flat of a friend - the sixth accused - identified as a certain Kundan Gohain, who is a student at Rajiv Gandhi Engineering College in Versova.

The girl soon fell unconscious and was allegedly raped by the six boys.

“The boys had decided at Cafe XO itself that they were going to sexually abuse the girl once they reached Andheri.

That is why they kept insisting that she drink some more. The boys said that they never thought that the victim would complain to the police, especially since she looked quite normal after the incident," an officer privy to the investigations said.

"And that is why, they say, they did not threaten her or leave the city immediately," he added.

The three other boys who left for Jamshedpur - their native place - also left two days after the incident, and that too because they were already scheduled to go that day, the police said.

Who are the boys

The police disclosed that the boys come from business families and that they are second/third year students of reputed colleges in the city.

The five boys who accompanied the girl from TISS have been identified as Vinamra Soni (a student at Jai Hind college), Jaskaran Singh Bhullar alias Karan (student at HR College), Hershvardhan (student at Sydenham college), Anish Borkataki (student at SP Jain Management and Research Institute) and Darayaus Colabawala (student at Hinduja college, and whom the victim identifies as Devsi).

All the five boys were staying at the International Boys Hostel at Churchgate, the police said.

While Vinamra, Karan and Hersh hail from Jamshedpur, Anish is from Assam.

Colabawala is foreign national, while Kundan - the sixth accused - is also from Assam, but lives with his mother in a rented apartment at Seven Bungalows. Kundan's mother had recently left for their native place, which is why Kundan allowed his friends to use his flat.

How the police nabbed the culprits After the FIR, the police had a tough time tracing the six accused as the girl did not know their true identity, or even where they lived. "In fact, she didn't even know where in Andheri they had taken her," the officer said. The police only gleaned that the accused were young college students who perhaps visited TISS often. "We enquired from the students at the TISS campus on Tuesday night itself and found that the accused lived at the International Hostel in Churchgate. We went there immediately and started searching the hostel… We identified two of the culprits, Anish and Darayaus, when they made an attempt to escape as soon as they saw us," the officer disclosed. "These two, in turn, led us to Kundan."

Police action now

The Trombay police on Thursday produced the three accused in Kurla court, which remanded the trio to police custody till April 28.

Police said they have confiscated the clothes that the accused were wearing on the day of the incident and have sent the same for forensic examination. The officials have now also formed three investigation teams, one of which has been sent to Jamshedpur to arrest the other accused. "We don't believe that they are still in Jamshedpur, but we hope to catch them soon," the officer said. "We are also looking into a drug angle. Although we have not recovered any drug from their hostel rooms, we have taken the blood samples of the accused as well as the victims to establish if they had taken drugs. We will also be interrogating the suspects on this issue," the official added.

In her complaint to the cops, rape victim details how she tried to escape from her attackers

Source: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/