RAIPUR: A class 12 student was allegedly drugged, thrashed and gangraped by five youths and left for dead in Surajpur district on Dussehra night, and is now in a critical condition in hospital.
The main accused, supposed to be her boyfriend, was found hanging at the crime scene on Tuesday. The survivor has alleged that he and his friends had tried to kill her after the gang rape.
Already under intense pressure because of the rape and murder of the wife and minor daughter of a policeman, Surajpur police are tight-lipped on the gang-rape cry.Calls and messages to Surguja SP MR Ahire and IG Ankit Garg on this went unanswered.
While local police say they are “verifying” the girl’s claim, her father demands justice, insisting that the five youths not only drugged and gangraped her but also tried to murder her.
According to the father, his daughter has said that she had gone to visit a Dussehra fest, a few kilometres from home, on Saturday evening where she met a boy she knew from school. They chatted for a while and when she got thirsty, he brought her a bottle of water.
She said she felt dizzy after having the water. The former classmate offered to take her home on his motorcycle as she was feeling unwell. Instead, he forcibly took her to a deserted area where four of his friends were already waiting, she said.
They took turns to rape her and beat her brutally when she resisted. She fell unconscious due to the torture, and they thought she was dead.
She was barely conscious when they tried to check if she was breathing, said her father. The girl played dead and the rapists left. She lay there, battered and injured, all night.
The next morning (Sunday, Oct 13), when her father came looking for her, she called out to him from behind some bushes. He was horrified to see her badly injured and took her to hospital.
According to police, they received a complaint from the girl’s parents on Oct 13 that she was thrashed by some people. She had severe injuries to her eyes and her condition was deteriorating. She was shifted from a local hospital to Surajpur, around 130km away, and then to Ambikapur, a further 40km away.
Later, police were alerted that the girl was alleging rape, said an officer. A police team went to the hospital and recorded her statement. Based on the complaint, police began searching for the suspects and found the main accused, the former classmate, hanging at the site where she was allegedly raped. His body had stated decomposing, a source said.