All five suspects held over India gang rape
Men likely to face prosecution under new law that sets the maximum jail term for rape at 20 years.
Indian police have arrested all five suspects over the gang rape of a photo-journalist in Mumbai, a crime that prompted anger about women’s safety in the country following a similar attack last year.
Sadanand Date, the joint commissioner of Mumbai police, told Reuters that the last two suspects had been arrested, including one detained in the capital New Delhi, hundreds of miles north of Mumbai.
New Delhi police declined to comment.
The 23-year-old journalist was taking photographs with a male colleague on Thursday evening in an abandoned textile factory compound next to a fashionable area of apartment and office blocks, shops and restaurants.
The gang allegedly tied the male colleague up using a belt before repeatedly raping the woman.
The victim of the Mumbai assault was in a stable condition in a hospital where she said she wanted to get back to work.
“Rape is not the end of life. I want strictest punishment for all the accused and want to join duty as early as possible,” the CNN-IBN television channel quoted the victim as saying.
The five suspects are likely to face prosecution under a new law that sets the maximum prison term for rape at 20 years.
Earlier on Saturday, one of the suspects was remanded in custody after appearing in court. His grandmother told local media he was only 16 and should be tried as a juvenile.
Police had initially said he was in his 20s.
The latest attack has renewed outrage among Indians who were horrified by the deadly gang rape of a student on a moving bus in New Delhi in December.
India introduced tougher rape laws in March in response to the December attack.