Muzaffarnagar:

A 21-year-old woman was allegedly raped and strangled to death by her brother-in-law and two others, after which they burned her body in an attempt to destroy evidence in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district, police said on Saturday.

Superintendent of Police (SP) (Rural) Aditya Bansal said the main accused, Ashish, has been arrested, while Shubham and Deepak are on the run.

The incident took place in Bavana village of Budhana area, when the woman’s family reported her missing on January 23, the officer said.

Investigations revealed that Ashish, her elder sister’s husband, was pressuring her to marry him, police said.

According to officials, the accused along with his associates, lured the woman away from her home, gang-raped her and later strangled her to death. They then allegedly burned her body in an attempt to destroy the evidence.

Ashish was arrested, following which he confessed to the crime. The woman’s charred remains have been recovered and a forensic examination is underway, he added.

A case has been registered against the accused, and efforts are on to apprehend the duo who are on the run. A strict action will be taken against those involved, and further investigation is underway, he said.

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Jodhpur:

The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail till March 31 to self-styled godman Asaram, who is serving life imprisonment in a 2013 rape case. This comes a week after the Supreme Court granted him bail till March 31 in another rape case, observing that he suffered from various ailments and needed treatment.

Soon after the top court granted him relief on medical grounds, Asaram’s counsels moved a suspension of sentence plea in the high court.

A division bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vineet Kumar Mathur granted interim bail to Asaram considering that the nature of the plea was similar to the one filed in the Supreme Court.

“We argued that the plea was similar in nature to that filed in the Supreme Court and the grounds stand valid in this case as well,” Asaram’s counsel Nishant Bora said.

He said the conditions for Asaram’s interim bail are the same as those set by the top court on January 7 except one.

“If Asaram wants to travel outside (Jodhpur), he will have to bear the expenses of the three constables who have been asked to accompany him,” Bora said.

A lower court sentenced Asaram to life imprisonment in April 2018 for raping a minor at his ashram in Jodhpur in 2013.

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A man in the UK is facing a lengthy prison sentence for the rape and manslaughter of a vulnerable woman he attacked on a park bench. Mohamed Iidow, 35, was captured on CCTV prowling Southall Park in West London, searching for a vulnerable target before approaching Natalie Shotter, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was passed out on a bench after a night out, the Independent reported. 

The harrowing footage recorded the horrific assault, showing Iidow manipulating Natalie’s “deeply unconscious” body to repeatedly attack her for more than 15 minutes.  

Natalie’s mother, Dr Cas Shotter Weetman, an NHS cardiology practitioner, has called for urgent action to address the “horrific” violence against women, emphasizing that many cannot walk freely or feel safe in public spaces.  

She said: “We need to change our thoughts about how we behave. There are people out there who continue to act in a very deviant and horrendous way and think that they can get away with it.”

In a moving statement, Dr Weetman described the horrific ordeal of having to watch her daughter being raped, “No mother should ever have to see that.

“Hearing medical evidence of how you caused my daughter’s death destroyed my family. I felt such anger my daughter had gone to the park on a night out enjoying herself and was assaulted by a predator. No woman should have to fear going to a park and sitting on a bench- it is disgusting.”

Further, she also paid tribute to her daughter, saying she was a “beautiful soul” and the “kindest girl” who would help others. She said that her daughter was a “great mum” to her three children aged 5 to 19, the Mirror reported. 

On Friday, Judge Richard Marks KC sentenced Iidow to life with a minimum term of 10 years and eight months, the media outlet reported. 

The judge said that taking advantage of Ms Shotter when she was vulnerable and unconscious was “wicked and utterly reckless”.

The judge mentioned that even though there had never been a recorded case before of someone dying as a result of an overstimulation of the nerves at the back of the throat causing cardiac arrest, there was a ‘high risk’ that she would suffer serious harm from what he did to her.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said during the trial that Ms Shotter had died of a heart attack caused by Iidow raping her “again and again”.

The CCTV footage showed Ms Shotter sitting on a bench with a different man when Iidow walked past and looked at them. 

“What was the defendant doing there, what was he seeking to do, walking up and down the paths in the middle of the night and thinking about what his objectives must have been – seeking out a vulnerable woman to rape,” Ms Morgan said.

The convict then left the park and drove away in his car before he returned. 

The victim was lying down, showing “no clear movement” for around half an hour before he approached her “nonchalantly”, Ms Morgan said.

During the attack, Ms Shotter was “deeply unconscious,” the prosecutor said. 

The CCTV further showed the convict moving Ms Shotter’s body around in different positions as he raped her.

Ms Shotter was discovered dead in the park by a passerby early on the morning of July 17, 2021.  

DNA swabs taken from her mouth matched samples collected from Mohamed Iidow.  

Iidow was arrested at his home on August 4, 2021, and during his police interview, he claimed that the sexual activity had been consensual.  

Ms Morgan told jurors, “The prosecution’s case is that Natalie died as a result of what was done to her by this defendant.

“She was not dead at the time when the defendant was orally raping her, it will be a matter for you to consider – that this defendant went to the park for a reason.

“He would not have sought to have sex with a dead body for over 15 minutes, he was having sex with someone he knew was alive but was deeply unconscious and therefore he was raping her.”

 

Jaipur:

A private school principal and father of a 14-year-old rape survivor have been arrested for allegedly tampering with the birth records of the girl to help the accused secure bail, police said on Sunday. The principal was arrested from Deoria on Thursday while the girl’s father was caught from Behror in Rajasthan on Saturday night, Station House Officer (SHO) of Murlipura Police Station Sunil Kumar Jangir said.

The girl had lodged an FIR in July alleging that her aunt had sold her to one Sandeep Yadav, a resident of Haryana, for Rs two lakh and that she was subsequently raped.

The case was registered under various sections of the IPC and POCSO Act and after investigation, her aunt, Sandeep Yadav, and his father Satveer Yadav were arrested and sent to judicial custody.

In the meanwhile, the girl’s father Sanjay allegedly contacted a private school in Uttar Pradesh to obtain a false record to claim that the girl was an adult and not a minor.

“The school principal Prannath Mal tampered with the school register and gave a false birth record. The document falsely stated that the girl’s birth year was 2003. We found the birth year had been changed from 2010 to 2003, thus making her 21-year-old,” he said.

The SHO said after the girl registered an FIR, police had obtained her record in which she is a minor. When the second document came up, police suspected it to be false and registered a separate case and a team was sent to Uttar Pradesh for verification.

“The team found that tampering was done in the school register. The register was seized and the principal was arrested. During interrogation, he said the girl’s father had approached him to seek a false record. After this, the girl’s father was also arrested on Saturday night,” he said.

The SHO said the principal and the girl’s father have been arrested in the second case related to tampering with documents.

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New Delhi:

A key accused in the rape case of a minor girl died after trying to escape police custody this morning, police said. The accused, identified as Tafujal Islam, was being taken to the location – where the crime allegedly took place – for a re-creation of the crime scene around 4 am. He then escaped from police custody and jumped into the pond at Dhing in Assam’s Nagaon district.

A search operation was launched and his body was recovered with the help of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) after about two hours, the police said.

“After his interrogation, he was taken for crime scene re-creation. When he was taken there, he suddenly tried to pull the handcuff from a constable’s grip and flee. He then fell in a nearby pond,” a senior police official said.

Our constable was also injured, he said.

“We are investigating as to how he was able to flee,” he added.

Tafujal Islam was also going to take the police to another accused’s residence, police sources said.

He was arrested on Friday after a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by three persons in Assam’s Nagaon district on Thursday evening. Two other suspects in the case are on the run.

The alleged assault reportedly took place when the girl was returning from a coaching class.

She was found in a semi-conscious state near a pond with her bicycle beside her, local residents said. She was on the roadside for about an hour before residents rescued her.

Himanta Biswa Sarma On Assam Rape Case

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had called it a “crime against humanity” and said that it has “struck our collective conscience”.

“We will NOT SPARE anyone and BRING the perpetrators to JUSTICE. I’ve directed the Assam Police chief to visit the site and ensure swift action against such monsters,” he had said in a post on X on Friday.

The horrific incident at Dhing, involving a minor, is a crime against humanity and has struck our collective conscience.

We will NOT SPARE anyone & BRING the perpetrators to JUSTICE. I’ve directed @DGPAssamPolice to visit the site and ensure swift action against such monsters.

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) August 23, 2024

The girl is recovering in hospital and a report of the medical test to confirm sexual assault is awaited.

Shops, markets, and education institutions in the area remained shut on Friday as a mark of protest. Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed to enhance security during this period.

The incident comes amid widespread protests against sexual violence in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor at a Kolkata hospital on August 9.

New Delhi:

Amid a nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor in Kolkata, a 14-year-old girl has died after allegedly being raped by her teacher in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra.

The victim, a Class 8 student, was a resident of a village in Duddhi of the Sonbhadra district. She died late Tuesday at the Banaras Hindu University Hospital in Varanasi, where she was admitted for 20 days.

The accused – Vishambar – is on the run.

ALSO READ | Nurse Raped, Killed On Way Home From Uttarakhand Hospital, Body Found In UP

According to the victim’s family, the accused worked as a sports instructor in the school and had called her to participate in a sports event on December 30 last year. He then took her to his house and raped her.

The family said the victim, fearing public shame, didn’t them anything and that her health gradually deteriorated after the incident.

She was sent to Chhattisgarh to visit her relatives, where she was treated but her health condition remained the same. The victim then broke the silence and told her aunt about the incident, and was then admitted to the hospital.

Accused Paid Family Rs 30,000

According to the family, the accused gave them Rs 30,000 to remain silent.

The family said they didn’t report the incident to the authorities because they feared public shame. But as the victim’s health condition worsened, her father filed a police complaint on July 10 and a case was registered against Vishambar, a resident of Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.

The police have registered a case under the POCSO Act and formed two teams to arrest him.

“The accused will be arrested soon,” a senior police official said on Tuesday.

थाना दुद्धी क्षेत्रान्तर्गत एक छात्रा के साथ हुए दुष्कर्म के संबंध में क्षेत्राधिकारी दुद्धी श्री प्रदीप सिंह चंदेल की बाइट-@Uppolice@adgzonevaranasi@digmirzapur@ANI@Live_Hindustan@bstvlivepic.twitter.com/mU9GVU6TCy

— Sonbhadra Police (@sonbhadrapolice) August 16, 2024

The incident comes amid a nationwide outrage over the rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor during her working hours in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The 31-year-old’s semi-naked body was found in the seminar hall of the government-run hospital last week.

Thane:

A 28-year-old man was arrested from Jogeshwari in Mumbai for allegedly raping a woman repeatedly and also forcing her to abort a pregnancy, a Thane police official said on Sunday.

Riyasat Illias Qureshi befriended the 24-year-old victim and raped her several times between February 2022 and January this year on the promise of marriage, the Rabodi police station official said.

“She filed a complaint after the accused, who is a tailor, refused to marry her,” he said. 

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Jammu:

A rape accused, who was at large for five months, was arrested in the district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, police said. The accused was identified as Sandeep Singh, a resident of Hoochak village of Pogal, they said.

Sandeep Singh was on the run after a case of rape was registered against him at the Ramsoo police station on March 19, a police spokesman said. He said a special police team, constituted by Senior Superintendent of Police Ramban, Anuj Kumar, arrested the accused from Ukhral. The accused was produced before the local court and further remanded to police custody to conclude the investigation on merits, the spokesman said.

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Idukki:

A Kerala court on Friday convicted and sentenced a man from Madhya Pradesh to a cumulative 33 years of imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl who hailed from West Bengal, at Poopara in this hilly district of the state.

Devikulam Fast Track Special Court (POCSO) judge Johnson M I sentenced 27-year-old Khemsing Aiyam to varying jail terms for offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the IPC for a total of 33 years, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Smiju K Das said However, the man will serve only 20 years in prison as the sentences have to be served concurrently and 20 years was the highest jail term pronounced by the judge, the SPP said.

Aiyam is the second accused in the case. The first accused, Mahesh Kumar Yadav, is on the run since he was given bail.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh on the convict which is to be given to the victim, the prosecutor said.

The court also recommended compensation to be provided to the victim as per the Victim Compensation Scheme and directed the District Legal Services Authority, Idukki-Thodupuzha accordingly, the SPP said.

According to the prosecution, the girl came to Rajakumari, a village in Idukki, along with her parents who had come to the state for work. Yadav, who was friendly with the parents and the girl, took her to the house of Aiyam and raped her there, the SPP said, adding that the crime took place in 2022.

Thereafter, Aiyam threatened the girl and took her to Poopara where he raped her in a plantation there, the prosecutor said.

The girl is a victim in a gangrape case also in which each of the three accused in that crime were convicted and sentenced to a cumulative of 90 years’ imprisonment in January this year.

As the sentences given to the three accused have to be served concurrently and the highest of the jail terms is 25 years, they are serving 25 years in prison

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Jabalpur:

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has quashed a rape case registered on the complaint of a woman against a man, observing that the two were in a relationship for over 10 years out of their “own free will”.

In his order of July 2, Justice Sanjay Dwivedi also observed that the matter appears to be an abuse of process of law.

As per the order, the woman and man are well-educated persons and had physical relations out of their “own free will” for over 10 years. They broke up after the man refused to marry her, it noted. However, it does not mean that a rape case could be registered against the petitioner (man), the court said.

“In my opinion, as per the factual circumstances, as have been narrated by the prosecutrix (woman) in her complaint and also in her statement of 164 CrPC, this case cannot be considered to be a case of rape as defined under Section 375 of IPC (Indian Penal Code) and the prosecution is nothing but appears to be an abuse of process of law,” the court said.

In this matter, the court said, even IPC section 366 (inducing a woman to compel her for marriage) is not made out against the man. “Therefore, the offence under Section 366 of IPC registered against the petitioner at the later point of time is also liable to be quashed,” it said.

The man was booked for rape and other charges by the Police Station Mahila Thana in Katni district in November 2021. He eventually moved the HC for relief. 

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