By Savikalpa Thapa
Two men were arrested on Monday for allegedly sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at knifepoint in a village under the Shirur taluka of Pune district on the night of March 1. The accused were arrested within two hours of receiving the complaint by the Police and have been remanded in custody till March 7 for further investigation.
The accused have been identified as Amol Narayan Pote (25) and Kishor Rambhau Kale (29), a laborer from Ahilyanagar district and a driver from Beed district respectively. The police took the accused into custody based on the facial descriptions given by the 19 year old and her family..
According to the police officials, the survivor, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, had come to visit her relatives in the village. Around 11 pm on the 1st March, she was sitting at a secluded spot with her cousin when the two accused arrived on a motorcycle. They allegedly brandished a knife and threatened the duo before forcing them to engage in obscene acts, which they recorded on their mobile phones. The men then proceeded to rape the woman and robbed gold jewelry worth ₹10,000 before escaping under the cover of darkness.
The survivor and her cousin went home and informed her sister about the incident. Her brother-in-law immediately filed a complaint at the Police Station. Right after receiving the complaint,a team led by Superintendent of Police, Pankaj Deshmukh, from the Ranjangaon Police Station, visited the crime scene and started the investigation.
Mahadev Waghmode, Senior Police Inspector at Ranjangaon Police Station.”Our crime team acted promptly and arrested the accused within hours. We have recovered the stolen gold jewelry and are ensuring a thorough investigation into the case.”
On Sunday morning, the accused were presented in the local court which remanded them in police custody till 7 March. They have been booked under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and further investigation is ongoing.
Authorities have assured that the case will be handled with utmost seriousness and that strict action will be taken against the perpetrators. Meanwhile, support and counseling have been provided to the survivor.