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Investigations into the rape of 17-year-old Jalna resident reveal that the victim was allegedly raped at a location between two police teams deployed at least three kilometres apart from each other on a highway on July 9 between 8.30 and 9.30 pm.

The 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped twice by two men, the second time after police set her up as "bait" and asked her to meet the accused, in Jalna, about 400 kilometres from Mumbai. Police has identified the accused as Nitin Savle (19) and Sanjay Havare (21) who have been remanded to police custody until July 18.

According to investigating officers, after the victim received a call from Havare at 8 pm on July 9, she was asked to come to Ambad Chowk where she would get her mobile back from the accused, which was stolen from her on July 6, when she was first allegedly raped by the duo.

"Assistant Police Inspector Vinod Ejjapawar of the local crime branch immediately deployed two teams of police officers in civil clothes at Ambad Chowk and at Mantha Chowk near the house of the victim. We already had a list of eight suspects based on the description given by the victim, where we were looking for accused with a clean shave and short hair," said an investigating officer. Police said that the victim left her residence around 8.15 pm on her scooter and was en route to Ambad Chowk.

Officers have attributed the second alleged rape of the 17-year-old victim to "miscommunication".

"We were unaware she left. About 1.5 kilometres before Ambad Chowk, Havare stopped the victim and asked her to get off the road with her headlights switched off. The victim under the assumption that she was being escorted by the police, obliged but later learnt that she had no police official tailing her movements," said the officer.

The stretch between Ambad Chowk and Mantha Chowk doesn't have a single street light and has a single road on either side of the highway. The road towards Ambad Chowk further leads to Aurangabad and the road in the opposite direction to Mantha Chowk connects motorists to Nanded.

Police said that the victim was allegedly raped near the railway tracks under a bridge. "Havare allegedly raped her and left her there. He even took the victim's mother's phone that she had on her. We caught Havare at Jalna railway station just before he was going to board a train to Aurangabad at 1.30 am on July 10. He told us the location of his accomplice. Savle was picked up at 4 am from a nearby village Rohanwadi where he was holed up," the officer said.

Special Inspector General of Police, Aurangabad Range, Vishwas Nangre-Patil on Saturday suspended Ejjapawar, for planning the trap with the aid of the victim and for the botched up operation.

Patil said that he had asked the sub-divisional police officer, Dikshitkumar Gedam, to conduct an investigation into the matter. "The victim is not admitted in a hospital and does not have any serious external injuries. we have registered a complaint," Patil said.