Sakinaka rape-murder case: Mumbai Police says accused has confessed; SC/ST Act invoked

Mumbai: A monetary dispute led to the brutal rape and murder of a woman in suburban Sakinaka last week and the lone accused has confessed to his crime, while the SC/ST Act has been invoked in the case, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said on Monday. The weapon used in the incident has been recovered, he said. Since the victim was a Dalit, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has been invoked against the accused, who is already facing rape and murder charges, Nagrale said at a press conference. The  34-year-old woman was raped and brutalised with a rod by a man inside a stationary tempo in suburban Sakinaka in the wee hours of Friday. She died at a hospital during treatment in the early hours of Saturday and the accused has been arrested, police earlier said. Nagrale said the police have inspected the crime scene and recreated the sequence of events leading to the crime with the help of the accused and video recorded it. The Mumbai police commissioner claimed the accused has confessed to the crime and police have recovered the weapon used in the incident. “We have the sequence of events, like when the victim reached the spot,  when the accused reached the spot, how the crime took place - everything is on record,” Nagrale said. The police have taken up this case on priority and a charge-sheet will be filed within one month, he said. “We will send all evidences for DNA analysis. All relevant CCTV footage has been collected from the area. There was some monetary dispute between the two (accused and victim) due to which the incident took place,” the senior IPS officer said. The National Commission for Women (NCW) as well well as the vice- chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC)  contacted the city police and discussed the case, he said. The accused, Mohan Chouhan (45), hailing from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, worked as a driver and lived on a pavement in the same area. He was identified with the help of CCTV footage collected from the area and traced within a few hours of the incident, the police have said.