LUCKNOW: A middle-aged woman, travelling with her husband from Jaipur to Jalaun, was brutally gang-raped and looted by eight people on the night of May 4 in Jalaun.
Reports said the victim, a resident of Gohan in Jalaun, was going to her native place with her husband from Jaipur where they work as small-time artisans. They reached Auraiya around midnight on Thursday by train and were looking for a public transport when they were offered a lift by the driver of a loader van. The couple accepted the offer and proceeded further to Jalaun.
According to the woman’s statement made to the police, the vehicle stopped for a while at a country liquor shop on Auraiya-Jalaun highway where a few more people got into it. After a few yards, the driver stopped the vehicle at a secluded link road where the woman’s husband was overpowered and tied up while eight people took turns to rape her. They abused and threatened the couple of dire consequences if they raised an alarm.
The people later dumped the couple on the highway after snatching all their valuables. The couple somehow approached the Jalaun police at about 3 pm on Friday and narrated the entire incident post which an FIR was lodged. The woman was later sent for medical examination.
“Acting on the complaint of the woman, we have lodged an FIR against eight unknown persons under Section 376D and 395 of IPC. We have got some vital clues about the culprits who will be nabbed soon,” said additional SP of Jalaun, SC Shakya. Some people have been rounded up on suspicion and investigations were underway, he added.
The incident comes as a grim reminder of how crime-prone and unsafe the highways of Uttar Pradesh are. In 2016, a similar incident that occurred on the Delhi-Kanpur national highway 91 in Bulandshahr had rocked the nation when a woman and her daughter were gang-raped while the family from Noida was travelling to Shajehanpur.