According to police, the woman was raped and then beaten with a rod, the rapist allegedly shoved a rod in her private parts, dumped her body on the desolate road before decamping from there.

 

The incident took place on the intervening night of Thursday-Friday on Khairani Road of the Sakinaka area of north-west Mumbai, and police recovered her in a pool of blood around 3 a.m. on Friday.

 

Sakinaka Police Station Senior Police Inspector Balwant Deshmukh said that the accused, identified as a local, Mohan Chavan, 45, was arrested hours after the dastardly crime and is being interrogated.

 

The police immediately rushed the victim in a critical condition to the BMC's Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar, and Deshmukh said "she remains under treatment".

 

Police teams are awaiting the woman to regain her consciousness to record her statement which could throw light on the entire episode, even as scouring of the CCTV footage of the vicinity and questioning potential witnesses in the area continues.

 

The incident was strongly condemned by Deputy Chairperson of Maharashtra Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe, Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande, many women activists and commoners, with many demanding the immediate passing of the Shakti Act which proposes death penalty for rape.

 

Top police officials are supervising the investigations and the possible involvement of others into the crime that shook the people on the eve of the state's biggest festival Ganeshotsav which started on Friday.