Mumbai (Maharashtra), September 12: The 34-year-old woman, who had been raped and brutalised with a rod inside her private parts in a stationary tempo in Mumbai's suburban Sakinaka locality, died at a hospital during treatment on Saturday.

The case which has chilling similarities to Delhi’s Nirbhaya gang-rape case happened in the wee hours of Friday. The suspect who was arrested within a few hours of the incident has now been charged with murder, apart from the other charges of rape, physical assault, etc.

Even though Mumbai Police has formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident and the suspect was arrested within hours, opposition BJP questioned if women were safe in Maharashtra.

A politician from the ruling coalition (on condition of anonymity) said, “BJP has demanded capital punishment for the accused even before the trial has begun”. Pointing to the irony he also wondered that the law and order and especially crime against woman has increased manyfold in almost all states ruled by BJP, including UP and even Delhi, but they have the galls to raise their voice in Maharashtra.

Sakinaka locality lies in the western suburbs of Andheri (East) and has several industrial units. According to police, the accused Mohan Chouhan (45) worked as a driver and lived on the pavement in the same area.

Besides being raped, the victim was assaulted with an iron rod in her private parts. She had also been stabbed with a knife and had lost a lot of blood when the police found her, said a police officer working on the case.

Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has termed the incident a "blot on humanity" and has discussed the case with state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil and Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale. Thackeray said, “The trial in the case will be held on a fast track and the victim, who succumbed to injuries today, will get justice."

Police commissioner Nagrale said that the crime came to light when the watchman of a company located on Khairani Road called the police control room and said that a man was assaulting a woman. Within 10 minutes the Police reached and found the victim inside a parked tempo. As her condition was serious, they decided to drive her to Rajawadi hospital in suburban Ghatkopar in the same vehicle so as to save time.

Investigations in the case also started simultaneously, some policemen obtained CCTV footage of the spot. A man seen leaving the tempo was identified as Mohan Chouhan who hails from Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. He was immediately arrested and later produced before a court which sent him to police custody till September 21.

While making arrest his blood-stained clothes were also seized. They would be sent for forensic analysis to find out if the victim's blood was on it.

The commissioner Nagrale added, “Special Investigation Team formed will conduct the probe and Assistant Commissioner of Police Jyotsna Rasam will be the investigation officer. The probe will be completed within a month, and the case will be tried before a fast-track court as the chief minister announced."

"As the victim was unconscious, her statement could not be recorded. Therefore police are as yet clueless about what exactly happened. But it will be ascertained during the investigation," Nagrale said.

The probe so far has revealed the involvement of only one person in the crime.

On Friday the police had booked the accused under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (rape), 323 (assault) and 34 (common intention). After the victim died, section 302 (murder) was added, while section 34 was dropped as the involvement of any other person in the crime has not come to light, a police release said.

BJP leader Pravin Darekar said the "onus" of the incident was entirely on the Shiv Sena-led state government "because there is no respect left for the law".

State BJP vice-president Chitra Wagh called for a new act on the lines of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act so that the culprits involved in cases of atrocities against women do not get bail easily. She also pointed out that the state women's commission does not have a chairperson for over a year.