LUCKNOW: In a chilling reminder of the gang rape of a woman and her 13-year old daughter near Bulandshahr in July last year, four women in a family were gangraped for hours in a field and the male member was shot dead by a group of armed highway robbers at Khurja-Jhajahr road near Greater Noida on early Thursday morning.
According to sources, a family of seven along with the driver was proceeding towards Bulandshahr from Jewar in their car when the tires of the vehicle were suddenly punctured near Sabauta village around 1:30 am.
As the occupants got down of the car to check, a group 6-7 armed miscreants pounced on them waylaying the family to nearby fields at gunpoint.
They snatched the mobile phones, purse and jewellery, cash and other valuable belongings of the family. They did not stop there and dragged four women members of the family to a few metres away and took turns raping them for hours together.
As one of the male members of the victim family resisted the move, he was brutally shot at chest and legs, killing him on the spot.
The deceased has been identified as Shakeel Qraishi.
However, the remaining members had, by then, informed the police. As the police team reached the spot, the criminals had fled the scene.
As per SSP, Gautum Buddh Nagar, Love Kumar, teams comprising sleuths of crime branch, STF and local polices were formed to nab the culprits. Raids were being conducted at various places in the adjoin districts, he said.
“An FIR has been lodged and the victims have been sent for medical examination and reports are awaited," the SSP said adding that the post-mortem proceedings of the person shot dead were on.
Cops, however, were yet to confirm sexual assault and said the women were misbehaved with.
The stretch across Yamuna Expressway where the incident has taken place is plagued with the terror of highway robbers.
The Thursday incident, however, is a rude reminder of the horrific gang rape of a woman and her 13-year-old daughter on the National Highway crossing Bulandshar while they were travelling in a car from Noida to Shahjahanpur in July last year.
The issue had snowballed into a big political storm and had become a major poll plank in the recently concluded UP Assembly elections.