BHOPAL: Incidents of crime against women continue to haunt Madhya Pradesh and the latest case has been reported nowhere else but from the state capital Bhopal.
In a spine-chilling episode, a young girl preparing for competitive examinations was abducted by her ex-boyfriend, locked in a flat and then gang-raped by him and his close friend in Bhopal on Saturday.
However, acting in the case which was registered at the MP Nagar police station on Sunday, the cops arrested within an hour all four accused, including the two men who allegedly gang-raped the girl and two others who aided the heinous crime.
According to SP (Bhopal South), Rahul Kumar Lodha all four accused aged between 20 and 30 years were arrested within an hour from the reporting of the alleged crime. Three of them, including the girl’s ex-boyfriend work at a toll plaza, while the fourth accused at whose flat the crime was allegedly committed is an ITI student.
“The arrested men have been booked under Sections 376, 376-D (rape and gang-rape), 365 (abduction) 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (crime with common intent) of IPC,” the SP South added.
The alleged gang-rape survivor girl who lives in Bhopal and is preparing for Banking Services examinations reported the matter to the city police on Sunday morning. She alleged that her ex-boyfriend Shailendra Dangi rang her on Saturday and asked to meet him near a restaurant in MP Nagar area.
Shailendra arrived at the spot riding a motorbike. He subsequently snatched the girl’s cell-phone and asked her to accompany him on the mobike if she wanted her cell-phone back.
Left with no choice the girl was forced to go with Shailendra on the motorbike. He took her to the flat of his ITI student friend Sonu near Apsara Talkies, where Shailendra’s three friends Sonu, Chiman and Dhiraj Rajput were already present.
Seeing the foursome there, the girl pleaded Shailendra to return her cell-phone and allow her to go. But Shailendra and Dhiraj allegedly gang-raped the girl, while Chiman watched the duo rape her taking turns and Sonu stood guard outside his flat.
After the heinous crime, the four accused threatened to kill her and family, if she reported the matter to the police.
Arrested accused paraded in a procession in public, Made to do sit-ups
Meanwhile, as part of the ongoing efforts to deter men from crime against women, the Bhopal police continued to parade in public those accused of harassing women in the public. The four men arrested on Sunday for gang-raping the young girl were paraded in full public view in a procession. They were paraded for around one km from MP Nagar police station to Milan restaurant, the spot from where the girl was abducted on Sunday.
The arrested foursome was made to do sit-ups in public and passer-by girls were allowed to even slap the alleged gang-rape and abduction accused.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Crime in India released in November 2017, MP topped the country when it came to rape cases, with a total of 4882 cases in 2016.
Recently, the state government informed the MP Assembly that 62 women and 33 minor girls were gangraped in various parts of MP between November 2017 and February 15, 2018. As many as 43 women and six girls were murdered, while 10 women were burnt alive within the same period.