Of the arrested, Sameer Dinkar Desai (30) is a stringer with a TV channel. Vijay Ashok Makhmale (28), Rahul Suryakant Shinde (30) and Sachin Maruti Pawar (32) had posed as policemen. A fifth man, who had posed as a police havaldar, is absconding.

The woman who lodged the complaint is a widow with a son. She had entered the sex trade after her husband died, but claimed that she later gave it up two years ago. She lives with a male friend at Dhankawadi.

The day she was allegedly raped, a woman friend was staying with them. The group stormed into the house around 6 pm. The TV stringer flashed his identity card, another man called himself a pimp and the others introduced themselves as policemen conducting a raid on the sex racket.

Makhmale and Pawar dragged the women to the bedroom and allegedly raped both, while their cronies confined their male friend to the kitchen. The police said the journalist threatened to expose her sex racket if she resisted. He then snatched her gold chains worth Rs 16,000.

According to the complaint, Pawar and the absconding accomplice abducted the male friend and the other woman in a car and took them to Katraj, where they raped the woman. They then brought them back to Dhankawadi around 11 pm, allegedly robbed them of more money and left with threats of murder if they went to the police.

On Saturday, the rapists called up the Dhankawadi woman and demanded Rs 10,000. This time, she informed the Sahkarnagar police, who set a trap and arrested the men in the process of accepting money.