50-Year-Old Woman Gang Raped by 3 Men
A 50-year-old woman was gang-raped and murdered allegedly by three men including an occultist and his two disciples on Sunday 3rd January night in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun district.
A 50-year-old woman was gang-raped and murdered allegedly by three men including an occultist and his two disciples on Sunday 3rd January night in westernUttar Pradesh's Budaun district. The victim, an Anganwadi worker, left for a temple in her village at around 6 pm on 3rd January, when she did not return for two-three hours, her family went to the police station but were turned back. Later that night, at around 11:30 pm, three men dumped her body outside her home and fled. According to the victim’s family, the three men were the temple's priest Baba Satyanarayan, his disciple Vedram and driver Jaspal. Sources said that before dumping her body outside her home, the accused had also taken her to a medical centre. But when she died, they came to her home, rang the bell, threw her blood-soaked body there and fled.
Images from the woman's village home taken on Monday 4th January morning, show her body laid out on a cot, surrounded by family members and other villagers. A yellow sheet covering her lower body appears to be soaked in blood and one of her legs appears broken and bent at the foot. According to the victim’s family when they rushed to the Ughaiti police station to file a complaint, Station Incharge Ravendra Pratap Singh refused to listen to them and said that he will take up the matter the next day. The cops visited the victim’s house on Monday morning and sent the body for postmortem. Two men have been arrested and a case has been registered against them, police said. The priest is still missing and a Rs 25,000 reward has been announced for those that arrest him.
A video of the accused occultist had emerged on Monday, in which he claimed the woman fell into a well near the place of worship and that he and others rescued her. "I brought two men to rescue her. We took her out of the well. She was alive. When we dropped her home, she was alive," he claimed in the video.
Budaun police chief said action was being taken against local policemen for negligence while investigating the case. Meanwhile, National Commission for Women (NCW) chief Rekha Sharma said that a team has been sent to the district to take stock of the situation. NCW member Chandramukhi Devi was sent by the commission to meet the family members of the Badaun gangrape victim. Speaking to reporters, she said, "Even if she is under pressure from someone, a woman should keep track of time and should not venture out late. I wonder if the victim had not gone out alone in the evening, or gone with a family member, she could have been saved." However, Devi has now said that she withdraws her statement, 'if anybody is hurt'. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has decided to set up a three-member committee of party members to investigate the gang rape. CM Yogi Adityanath has ordered the police to take swift action.
