Mumbai gang-rape accused tells mother he committed the crime

Zee Media Bureau

Mumbai: One of the accused in the Mumbai gang-rape case is reported to have admitted before his mother that he had indeed committed the crime. As per a report in a leading English daily, 21-year-old Qasim Shaikh told his mother Chand Bibi on Monday, while she was visiting him in lock-up, that he had raped the girl along with four other accused. Chand Bibi said when she asked him why he had done so, Qasim kept quiet. “I was shattered,” the mother said. Meanwhile, Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh has assured early justice for the 22-year-old photojournalist who was gang-raped by the five men in an abandoned textile mill complex on August 22. "Our priority is to collect the evidence and file the chargesheet as soon as possible," he told reporters yesterday. The Mumbai Police have arrested all the five suspects who raped the woman. The police chief said all evidence had been collected and it would be handed over to forensic experts today. The men had also recorded the crime on their cell phones. "The mobile phone on which the crime was video recorded by the accused has been recovered. We have also seized the phone of the victim which was sold off by the accused," said Satyapal Singh. He said out of the five accused, three had criminal records. He also confirmed that none of the accused was a juvenile as was being claimed by one of suspects` mother. (With IANS inputs)