Maharashtra: Phaltan police register FIR, one rape accused now arrested

The Phaltan Gramin police station in Satara district have registered a First Information Report FIR in connection with the alleged gangrape of a tribal woman from Raigad district who is also a bonded labourer They have also arrested one accusedmdashHasan Latif Shaikh alias Balu Shethmdashof the five named by the woman in the FIRmiddayrsquos report on July 7 stated that the crime came to light when the woman approached tribal leader Vivek Pandit who is the chairman of Tribal Development Review Committee in Maharashtra He informed the cops of the matter and a team from Mandvi police station recorded her statement on Wednesday nightA Satara police team arrived in Virar East on Thursday and took the 28yearold Dalit woman to register an FIR against Hasan Latif Shaikh alias Balu Sheth and others The woman and the police reached Phaltan on Thursday eveningThe FIR at Phaltan Gramin police station has been registered under sections 376 376D 323 506 of Indian Penal Code provisions of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 and Bonded Labour System Abolition Act 1976 ldquoThe other accused are being identified and we will arrest them soonrdquo said an officer attached to Phaltan Gramin police stationThe shanties left above that the labourers live in PicsHanif PatelThe survivor claimed that she was raped at a place where she had gone with the family to work in a charcoal manufacturing unit at Phaltan She somehow managed to escape the crime scene and reached her hometown and later met Pandit at Usgaon Virar East ldquoThe procedure to record her statement was completed around midnight on Wednesdayrdquo Pandit told middayAn officer from Mandvi police station said ldquoThe survivor was so badly traumatised that she took a lot of time to recall the incident and narrate her ordeal to us We in the presence of a woman police officer patiently waited for her to recall everything as the issue was highly sensitive in nature and the woman belongs to the Katkari community a primitive triberdquoOfficials at the spot to take stock of the bonded labour situationldquoAfter our officers coaxed the survivor she told us that she was raped by five men So we have recorded her statement and all the documents have been handed over to a team of cops from Satara The survivor has gone to Satara with the officers for further course of actionrdquo said an officer from Mandvi police stationSources at Satara police station told midday that the survivorrsquos two children and inlaws were rescued on Wednesday night ldquoThey are all finerdquo said an officerMeanwhile an activist Sneha Dube told midday that after the cops detained Shaikh on Wednesday night lsquohis Shaikhrsquos wife came to the charcoal manufacturing facility and intimidated other 20 families who were bonded labourersrsquo Dube saidA shanty that was destroyed on Thursday nightThe workers of Shramjeevi Sangathana which claims to work for the welfare of tribals in Maharashtra said that the bonded labourers had been forced to live in extremely inhuman conditions ldquoThe shanties are in deplorable conditionrdquo said the source who added ldquoA few shanties made of tree branches covered with plastic sheets and tattered cloth to withstand rain were destroyed by the charcoal manufacturing facility owner on Thursday nightrdquo