The accused were identified as Noor Mohammed Ghulam Malik, Vinayak Nana Bhagat and Bakhtawar Shaikh. The three were close friends of the rape victim's husband, Pishu Roy. They all lived in Yadav Nagar slums, Khairani Road. Roy, a labourer in a Powai factory, had got married a few months ago, and since then, his three friends had been pressing him for a party. On Saturday night, the three assembled at Roy's place when he agreed to get some liquor and snacks for them.

The four drank heavily until midnight, and when Roy was totally drunk, the other three whipped out a knife and dragged him out, while two of them forcibly took his 24-year-old wife in a hut down the road. The woman was gagged and threatened at knife-point, as was her husband. Malik, Bhagat and Shaikh then raped the woman.