Four of the accused in the 22-year-old photojournalist gangrape case were on Thursday remanded to judicial custody till September 19 by a magistrate court.
Magistrate U.M. Padwad sent all the four culprits — Shiraz Rehman Khan, Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali and Salim Ansari — to 14-day judicial custody after the crime branch sought the same to conduct an identification parade. Their police custody ended on Thursday.
On August 30, another minor accused was produced before a juvenile court, from where he was sent to a juvenile remand home in Dongri. The juvenile accused, if convicted, would have to spend a maximum of three years at a correctional facility instead of undergoing stricter punishment of no less than 7 years, which could extend up to life imprisonment for others.
According to the police, one of the five accused in the brutal crime was found to be a minor after his brother produced a birth certificate issued by the city’s civic authority and a school leaving certificate, both of which showed that he was born in February 1997.
On August 27, teams from Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, and Gujarat Forensic Science Laboratory, had scoured the crime scene at Shakti Mills Compound for nearly three hours looking for evidence to build a water-tight case against the accused.
The investigators have slapped three more Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections — 377 (Unnatural offence), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) against the accused.
The five accused had been earlier booked under various Sections of IPC including 376(D), 342, 506(2) and 34.