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29 March 2024

Mumbai gang-rape: Sonam Kapoor protests

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By Staff

Indian Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor (C) speaks at the end of a protest march against the gang-rape of a female photographer in Mumbai on August 25, 2013. (AFP)

Mumbai police Sunday arrested the fifth and final member of a gang suspected of raping a photographer, a crime that reignited anger about women's safety in India following a similar attack last year.

The latest arrest came as the victim's family urged the nation, including the media, to continue to fight for justice "for all those victims and their families" who have gone through "the same hell as we have".

The family said it was "optimistic" their daughter's case would be fast -tracked and the "severest of punishments" handed down to those responsible, because of ongoing campaigns and a tougher sex crime law introduced earlier this year.

The group allegedly trapped and repeatedly raped the woman, said to be in her early 20s, on Thursday in an abandoned mill in an upmarket district of central Mumbai, where she was on assignment for a magazine.

The attack rekindled memories of the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi in December. That crime sparked nationwide protests and brought to the surface seething anger about violence against women in India.

The outrage led to a tougher anti-rape law that included increased punishment for sex offenders, who face the death penalty if a victim dies, and a broader definition of sexual assault.

On Sunday a Mumbai police team arrested the fifth suspect in New Delhi over the brutal attack in which the woman's male colleague was allegedly tied up with a belt and the woman attacked nearby. 

The woman, reportedly an intern, is undergoing treatment at Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital, where staff said she was steadily improving.

"She is eating normally and her medical parameters are in control," the acting head of the hospital said in a statement.

The fifth suspect was tracked down after the arrest of four others since Friday, all in Mumbai. One arrested early on Sunday was identified by the Press Trust of India as Kasim Bangali.

(All pictures: AFP)