Bhopal:

Two horrific incidents of rape have been reported from Madhya Pradesh – one from Indore and another from Rewa – even as outrage continues over the August rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital and the rape of two minors in Maharashtra’s Badlapur.

In the Rewa case, a couple at a picnic spot near a temple was attacked.

The husband was tied to a tree and his wife was gang-raped. Her rapists filmed the assault and threatened to release the video online if the couple filed a police complaint. This was on October 21.

The police filed a case the following day and some suspects have been arrested.

Indore Rape Case

Meanwhile, in Indore a neurodivergent woman was sexually assaulted by a daily wage worker.

CCTV footage showed the woman wandering, half-naked and bleeding, in the city’s Sadar Bazaar area around 3.45 am Tuesday. The cops, acting with more haste in this case, reviewed the footage and found she had been accosted, hours earlier, by the worker, now identified as Sonu.

The footage showed Sonu leading the woman to a waste treatment facility less than an hour before she was found. The police later said Sonu had confessed to the rape.

Congress Attacks BJP Over Double Rapes

After the Indore rape the state’s Congress chief, Jitu Patwari, hit out at the ruling BJP on X.

“The daughter is naked on the road (while) the Chief Minister is busy at an event,” he said, taking a swipe over the Ladli Behna Yojna, a women’s welfare initiative launched by Mr Yadav’s predecessor, Shivraj Chouhan, and which was credited with helping the BJP win last year’s Assembly election.

Mr Patwari also compared the condition in which the Indore woman was found to the disrobing of Draupadi in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, asking, “Can’t the Chief Minister who considers himself ‘God’ see the disrobing of Draupadi?” “I am angry and worried at the plight of our daughters. Crimes against our daughters are not stopping but the Chief Minister is sitting with his eyes closed.”

Responding for the state government, junior Minister Narendra Shivaji Patel pointed out that the accused – in the Indore case – had been arrested and emphasised the BJP’s commitment to handling such matters sensitively. “The law will teach the accused a lesson… they will not be spared.”

Mr Patel also said the BJP government prioritises the welfare of neurodivergent individuals, with the Social Justice and Welfare Department involved in supporting them. “Regardless of the city, the department is carrying out responsibilities diligently,” he claimed.

2023 Ujjain Rape Case

The Rewa and Indore sexual assault cases have brought the spotlight back on Madhya Pradesh after a horrifying incident from Ujjain in September last year. A minor girl was raped and left bleeding on the streets, and went from door to door asking for help, only to be turned away by heartless citizens.

READ | Man Arrested For Teen’s Rape Near Ujjain, Tried To Escape From Custody

For two hours, she was ignored by more than 500 homes and restaurants, as well as officials at a toll booth, till a temple priest spotted and rushed her to a hospital, and called the police.

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Guna:

A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of his eight-year-old daughter in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district, with a doctor suspecting that she was raped before being killed, an official said on Sunday.

The child’s body with a hand and a leg tied to a stone was found in a well on Saturday, three days after she went missing under Chachoda police station limits, some 75 km from the district headquarters, an official said.

Chachoda police station in-charge Machal Singh Mandeliya said suspicion arose about the likely involvement of the girl’s father as he was not showing any interest in the search for his daughter.

Citing the initial probe, he said the girl was last seen with her father before she went missing.

After the girl’s body was found, police handed it over to her family after post-mortem, he said. Police detained the girl’s father after her last rites on Sunday morning, Mandeliya said.

The father told the investigators that he killed the girl and dumped her body in a well after tying her hand and leg to a stone with a towel.

Chachoda’s Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Divya Rajawat said in the preliminary post-mortem report, Dr Ankit Upadhyaya from the local government hospital has expressed suspicion that the girl was raped before being murdered.

Further investigation is underway, the official added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Indore:

Police on Thursday said they have arrested three of the six persons who allegedly assaulted two army officers and raped their woman friend near Mhow in Madhya Pradesh.

The announcement of arrests came on a day Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi slammed the BJP over the incident, alleging “non-existent” law and order in the states ruled by the saffron party.

Anil Baror (27) and Pawan Bansunia (23) were produced before a local court which remanded them in police custody for five days, said a police official. Another accused, Ritesh Bhabhar (25), was arrested on Thursday night.

Superintendent of Police (Rural) Hitika Vasal told PTI that Bhabhar was accused of threatening the two army officers and their two women friends with a pistol during the incident, while the other accused were carrying sticks.

A total of six accused have been identified in connection with the incident that took place in the early hours of Wednesday near the popular tourist spot Jam Gate, about 30 km from Mhow military cantonment, police said.

“Several teams are on the lookout for the three on the run accused, and a reward of Rs 10,000 has been announced for (information about) each of them,” the SP said.

The army officers, aged 23 and 24, undergoing the Young Officers course at the Infantry School in Mhow cantonment town, had gone out for a picnic with their two female friends.

The accused arrived at the picnic spot around 2 am, and started assaulting one of the officers and his female friend who were sitting in the car, police said.

Upon hearing the commotion, the other officer and his woman friend, who were on a hilltop, reached the spot.

Later, after police reached the spot, the army officers and their female friends were brought to Mhow civil hospital, where a medical examination confirmed that one of the women was raped, an official said.

A case has been registered under sections 70 (gang rape), 310-2 (dacoity), 308-2 (extortion) and 115-2 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and under sections of the Arms Act based on the complaint filed by the officer.

One of those arrested reportedly has a case of loot registered against him in 2016.

The crime spot is located in a hilly region surrounded by forests, said SP Vasal.

Badgonda police station in-charge Lokendra Singh Hirore said the accused held one of the couples captive while beating them up, and told the other couple that the hostages would be released only when they give them Rs 10 lakh.

“The complainant has told us that the accused took his woman friend away to a place and he suspected that she was raped. The woman’s statement is yet to be recorded,” the official said.

Rahul Gandhi slammed the BJP over the attack, saying the negative attitude of the BJP government towards rising crimes against women is “extremely worrying”.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the prime minister talks big about women’s safety, but women across the country are still waiting for a serious effort for their safety.

In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said the violence against the two army men and the rape of their female companion in Madhya Pradesh is enough to shame the entire society.

“Law and order in BJP-ruled states is almost non-existent and the negative attitude of BJP government towards the increasing crimes against women is extremely worrying,” he said.

This audacity of the criminals is a result of the total failure of the administration and the unsafe environment prevailing in the country which is also a restriction on the freedom and aspirations of the daughters of India, Gandhi said.

In her post on X, Priyanka Gandhi said the incident of gang rape of a woman after holding army officers hostage in Madhya Pradesh, and that of the naked body of a woman being found on the highway in Uttar Pradesh are “heart-wrenching”.

Every day on average 86 women are becoming victims of rape and brutality in the country, she said.

“From home to outside, from road to office, women are not safe anywhere. Half of the country’s population is not only unsafe, but due to such brutality, the morale of crores of women is broken every day,” Priyanka Gandhi said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Rewa (MP):

Police probing the April 24 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa, have found that her teenage brother sexually assaulted her after watching a pornographic video on mobile and then killed her, following which his mother and his two elder sisters helped in the cover-up, an official said.

The police cracked the case and detained the victim’s 13-year-old brother, their mother and sisters aged 17 and 18 after interrogation of 50 people, intense questioning of the accused persons and on the basis of technical evidence, he said on Saturday.

Providing details of the case, Superintendent of Police Vivek Singh said, “A nine-year-old girl was raped and strangulated to death under Jawa police station limits on April 24, following which the police had registered a case and started a probe.” “The body of the victim was recovered from the courtyard of her house where she was sleeping at the time of the incident,” he said.

After the intense interrogation of the family members, it came to light that the victim’s 13-year-old brother had slept beside her at night. It was found that the teenage boy raped his sister after watching obscene videos on the mobile phone, he said.

When the victim threatened to tell this to their father, the boy stranguled her and later woke up his mother and confided in his mother. She then found that the victim was still alive. On seeing that, the accused again strangled her, Singh said.

In the meantime, his two elder sisters also woke up and all of them changed the spot of their bed before informing the police to mislead the probe. However, they finally admitted to their crime after being repeatedly interrogated, he said.

Further legal steps are being taken after detaining the boy, his two sisters and their mother, the official said.

“The police received information on April 24 morning that the body of the girl was lying in the courtyard of the house. Evidence relating to rape and murder were found in the post-mortem report and an SIT team was constituted for the probe,” Mr Singh said.

In order to mislead the investigators, the family members had told the police that the girl died after being bitten by a poisonous insect, he said.

The probe revealed that there was no sign of anybody entering the house, and family members also denied hearing any sound during the night, he said.

“After collecting technical evidence and interrogation of 50 people, police found repeated changes in the statements of the family members. On the basis of suspicion, they were intensely interrogated, following which they admitted the crime,” Mr Singh.

Bhopal:

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped in the hostel of a private school in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, following which a case has been registered against three persons, a police official said on Wednesday.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.

The police said they were trying to ascertain when the incident exactly took place.

“An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped at a girls’ hostel of private school. Following a complaint in this regard, the police registered a case on Tuesday night against three persons under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 376 (rape) and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act,” Misrod police station in-charge Manish Raj Bhadoria said.

Although the names of the accused are mentioned in the FIR, their identity is being established, he said.

When asked about the allegation that the girl was drugged before the crime, Bhadoria said all these things will be clear once the investigation gets over.

“The process of carrying out the medical examination of the victim and recording her statement is underway,” he said, adding that several police teams have been constituted to collect the evidence related to the case.

On whether the clinical examination confirmed that the girl was raped, Bhadoria said a comprehensive report is awaited.

Replying to a query that injuries and swelling were found in the girl’s private part during a medical examination conducted by doctors as per the request by the victim’s mother, the police official said the complainant has made this allegation, but things will be clear in a detailed medical examination.

Bhadoria said that the CCTV footage of the hostel has been recovered as the date of the incident is not clear.

“The accused will be arrested once their identity is established,” he said.

The office of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said that taking cognizance of the matter, he has ordered an SIT to probe into the matter. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)