NEW DELHI (AP) — A young photojournalist was gang raped while her male colleague was tied up and beaten in an isolated, overgrown corner of India’s business hub of Mumbai, police said today. The case was reminiscent of the December gang rape and death of a young university student in the Indian capital that shocked the country.
The attack took place in Lower Parel, a one-time textile manufacturing neighborhood of south Mumbai that over the past decade has changed dramatically. Today, upscale malls, trendy restaurants and super-luxury condominiums sit side-by-side with abandoned textile mills and sprawling slums.
Police said the woman was on assignment to take pictures of the neighborhood Thursday evening when five men confronted her and her colleague. After initially offering to help her get permission to shoot inside a crumbling, isolated building, they became aggressive and accused the male colleague of being involved in a local crime.
When he denied involvement in the crime, they tied his hands with a belt and took the woman to another part of the compound and took turns raping her, Mumbai’s Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told reporters. The attack took place at about 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Today, police arrested one suspect in the attack and he had named and identified the other four men, Singh said.
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