‘DNA samples of accused match victim’s swab’

Minor accused in case referred to Juvenile Justice Board

Officers of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch Friday said the DNA samples of the five accused in the Shakti Mills gangrape case matched the swab taken from the victim. The police have also added three additional sections to the complaint against the five accused.

We had sent the victims vaginal swab and the DNA samples of the five accused for comparison at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Kalina. The five samples have matched the DNA on the swab, said a Crime Branch officer. Besides the sections of gangrape and wrongful restraint,the police have introduced new charges of unnatural offences,criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code against the accused.

A minor,who was the first of the five accused to be arrested in the case,was Friday referred to the Juvenile Justice Board in Dongri,after his grandmother furnished his birth certificate issued by BMC. Police had earlier named the accused as an adult. In their remand application Friday,police said the suspect is a juvenile and hence the necessary changes were made.

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After the accused were produced before the Esplanade Court and court proceedings were completed Friday,some women activists,who claimed to be from the womens wing of the NCP,attempted to manhandle the accused while they were being escorted to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch headquarters.

Some women also threw eggs on the accused,which hit the police vans and a police constable. The mob,which was detained for some time,dispersed later.

Earlier in the day,rejecting the insubstantial attempt made by the defence lawyer appearing for one of the accused Mohammad Qasim that his client is a juvenile and therefore should be sent to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB),a metropolitan magistrate observed that there was no need to send Qasim for a medical test as it was clear that he was not a minor.

The accused were remanded to further custody after prosecutor Kiran Bendbhar told the court that the clothes that the accused wore at the time of the incident had to be recovered.