Maharashtra / Woman dies after being raped, tortured with rod in tempo in Mumbai

Mumbai: A woman in her early 30s, who was raped and brutally assaulted in stationary tempo in Mumbai's Saki Naka early on Friday (September 10), dies during treatment, the police said. The guesome incident has sent shockwaves across the nation and has a disturbing similarity to 2012 Nirbhaya incident of Delhi - the Saki Naka woman was also sexually assaulted and tortured - an iron rod was inserted into her body, according to sources.

Mohan Chouhan (45), the accused, was arrested within a few hours of the incident, said an official. The police control room received a call in the early hours of Friday (September 10) that a man was thrashing a woman on Khairani Road, he said. A police team rushed to the spot to find a woman lying in a pool of blood. She was taken to the civic-run Rajawadi hospital, an official said. 

Friday's preliminary probe showed the woman had been raped and also assaulted with an iron rod in her private parts, and the official said that the incident had taken place inside a tempo parked on the roadside. 

Acting on some leads, accused Chauhan was arrested under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 376 (rape) and further probe was on, he added.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has taken grave note of the incident and is discussing it with concerned officials, while Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis said he was "shocked" over the development. Terming the incident as "sad and shocking", Home Minister Diip Walse-Patil said that the arrested accused would be given the most stringent punishment.

In December 2012, a young woman -- later referred to as ‘Nirbhaya’ -- was brutally gang-raped and assaulted inside a moving bus in Delhi, causing a wave of outrage across the country. She died in hospital after struggling for life for several days.