TISS gang rape case: Judicial custody of 6 accused extended

MUMBAI: A local court on Monday extended till July 20 the judicial custody of the six accused in the TISS gang rape case even as police said that it had statements of over 35 witnesses in the 300-odd page chargesheet filed in this regard.

Six persons have been charged with gang-raping a 23- year-old US national, who was a student of the city-based Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), in April.

The accused - Vinamra Soni, Jaskaran Singh Bhullar alias Karan, Harshawardhan Yadav, Anish Borkataki and Kundan Borgonain - were today given a copy of the chargesheet and their judicial custody was extended till July 20.

According to the testimony given by the victim's close friend Rishab Choksi, the girl had called him up on April 14 stating that she was gang raped.

Choksi recalled the conversation he had with the victim a day before the incident happened when the victim was out with the six accused and her friend Annie Brown.

"On April 12 between 2 am and 5.30 am, I received a missed all from the victim. When I called her back, she said that she was with five boys in a flat at Andheri (a western suburb). She asked me to come but I told her that I was in South Mumbai and thus could not go," Choksi said.

He further said that on April 14 when he was in Kolkata, the victim called him and said that the five boys had raped her and told him that she was on her way to the police station to lodge a complaint.