The Mumbai police plans to conduct test identification parade of the five accused in the photojournalist gangrape case as soon as they are remanded to judicial custody.
“Currently all the five arrested accused will remain in police custody till September 5. When they will be produced before a court on the last day, we will seek further custody of the culprits,” a crime branch official said. “However, if we do not get extension of the police custody and the accused are sent to judicial custody, then we will immediately go for identification parade,” he said.
According to the officer, the investigators were determined to complete all the legal procedures at the earliest and file the chargesheet so that the accused are handed the highest punishment at the earliest.
The 22-year-old photojournalist was sexually assaulted at the deserted Shakti Mills compound in Parel area on the evening of August 22 when she had gone there on an assignment with a male colleague.
As per the procedure, during the test identification parade (TIP), a group of persons, including one suspected of having committed a crime, are assembled to see if the victim and eyewitnesses can identify the suspect.
As per law, the TIP is conducted when the accused are in judicial custody and lodged in jail.
One of the accused in the case is a minor while the four other accused were identified as Shiraz Rehman Khan, Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Salim Ansari.
The five were booked under IPC Sections 376(D) (rape), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506(2) (criminal intimidation), 377 (Unnatural offence), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention to commit an offence).