Saki Naka rape and death: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray says case will be fast-tracked, perpetrator severely punished

Mumbai: The Saki Naka rape case, which has lead to the death of the 34-year-old victim, has shocked Mumbai and the rest of the country. The chief minister of the state, Uddhav Thackeray, termed the rape and the subsequent death of the woman as a "blot on humanity", and promised a fast-track trial in the case.

He asserted that the perpetrator would be punished severely. "The trial in the case will be done on a fast track and the victim, who succumbed to injuries today, will get justice," Thackeray said in a statement. The chief minister said he has discussed the case with state Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil and Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale. "I have directed the authorities to expedite the investigation into the case," he said.

The woman, 34, died in a civic-run hospital in Mumbai in the wee hours of Saturday a day after she was raped and brutalised with an iron rod in a stationary vehicle parked by the roadside at Sakinaka. A 45-year-old man has been arrested in this connection, police have said. 

The court has meanwhile sent the accused to Police custody till 21st September.

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, the accused Mohan Chouhan (45), was arrested under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 376 (rape) and probe was on.

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. 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.

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.

(With Agency inputs)