BHOPAL: Two horrific incidents of crime against women have been reported in Madhya Pradesh over the last 36 hours.
While a middle-aged widow was raped and an iron rod inserted in her private parts by the accused in Sidhi district, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a grocery trader, who then murdered the minor in Khandwa district.
In an incident, which is bound to revive chilling memories of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape of Delhi, a 48-year-old widow was raped by a man with the help of three other men in the Amiliya area of Sidhi district on Saturday late night.
The middle-aged woman lost her husband four years back and has two sons working in Gujarat. She lives and runs a tea-shop in a hut located at a desolate place near the highway.
The four men (who hail from a neighbouring village) barged into her hut on the pretext of having drinking water late on Saturday night.
One of them then allegedly raped the widow, while the other three aided the alleged crime. The prime accused also put an iron rod in the woman’s private parts.
On coming to know about the incident, the police rushed the woman to the Sidhi district hospital from where the doctors referred her to Sanjay Gandhi Medical College in Rewa district, where she is now stated out of danger.
“All five men have been arrested and booked. They will be produced before the court on Tuesday. While the authorities will bear the entire expenditure of the woman’s medical treatment, Rs 1 lakh has been immediately released from the Red Cross to her family. Another Rs 3 lakh will be rendered to her under the state government’s victim compensation scheme,” Sidhi district SP Pankaj Kumawat said.
In the other incident, the 45-year-old grocery trader raped the Class IX student girl who had gone to his shop to buy a packet of biscuits. To ensure that the matter didn’t become public, he strangled the minor to death.
According to police sources, the trader packed the body in a bag with the help of his wife. However, a neighbour spotted it and alerted the girl’s family who rushed to the spot only to find their daughter dead. The accused and his wife, however, had managed to flee by then.
As per the latest reports, the police said they have arrested the trader, but his wife is still on the run.