Woman From Bhutan Raped; 7 Accused Held

Police have arrested seven persons for the alleged gang-rape of a 27-year-old Bhutanese woman.

- HT Correspondent

NE: The complainant approached the Samarth Police Station recently over the incident that took place in 2021. The accused have been identified as Shantanu Kukade, Ritesh Navale, Umesh Shahane, Bhandar Badde, Pratik Shinde, Sachin Bidkar, Sagar Rasge, Avinash Suryavanshi and Mudasin Khan.

According to the complaint, the woman landed in Pune for educational and employment purposes in 2020 and later met the accused.

Umesh Gitte, senior inspector, Samarth Police Station said, "The complainant gathered the strength to finally approach the police after a recent sexual assault by Kukade. The foreign man was introduced to Kukade by Navale. While the accused provided financial and accommodation facilities to the complainant, later they sexually assaulted her."

As part of the probe, police raided the office of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) run by Kukade.