Mumbai gang-rape: Trial will be held in fast-track court, says Chavan

Prithviraj Chavan asserted on Sunday that stringent action would be taken against the perpetrators of the Mumbai gang-rape.

Zee Media Bureau

Mumbai: Even as all the five accused were held by the police in the Mumbai gang-rape case, the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan asserted on Sunday that stringent action would be taken against the perpetrators of the horrific crime. Chavan assured that the trial would be held in a fast-track court to ensure speedy justice to the victim. He requested everyone to respect the privacy of the girl and told the family that all precautions would be taken to make sure that the victim`s identity is not revealed. "The state wanted to engage the best legal talent in the case and see that maximum punishment is meted out to the culprits in the gang-rape of the photojournalist," Chavan said. Maharashtra CM visited Jaslok Hospital today, where the young photo-journalist is undergoing treatment. The doctors attending to her have said that she is in a stable condition and was steadily improving. The Maharashtra government announced appointment of noted lawyer Ujjwal Nikam as the special public prosecutor in the case that has triggered outrage across the country even as Mumbai police intesified the hunt to trace the mobile phone used to shoot pictures of the brutal attack. Nikam confirmed the development saying that Chavan and Home Minister RR Patil had called him up to inform about his appointment as the prosecutor. Meanwhile, all the five accused have been arrested by the police with the remaining two suspects on the run being held today, three days after the crime. Mohammed Kasim Hafiz Shaikh alias Kasim Bengali (21), a resident of Agripada in central Mumbai and one of the accused, was arrested at 4.15 am today from Mumbai Central while his accomplice Siraj Rehman Khan (24) was arrested last night. Both were remanded in police custody till August 30. Another accused Salim Ansari (27) was arrested from Delhi by Mumbai crime branch sleuths today. He was arrested from Bharat Nagar in North-West Delhi, when he was on his way to a relative`s house in the capital. He was taken to a hospital for medical test and later to Mumbai where he would be produced before a court tomorrow, police said. Two others involved in the case, Vijay Jadhav and Chand Babu Sattar Shaikh, were arrested earlier. They were yesterday produced before the court which remanded them in police custody till August 30. All the five accused have been booked under various sections of IPC such as 376(D) (rape), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506(2) (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention). Nikam confirmed the development saying that Chavan and Home Minister R R Patil had called him up to inform about his appointment as the prosecutor. "I have given my consent," he told PTI. The young photo-journalist, working as an intern with an English Magazine, was gang-raped in the premises of the defunct Shakti Mills Compound where she had gone along with a male colleague on an assignment to shoot pictures on August 22. With PTI inputs