RAIPUR: A tribal woman in Korba district of Chhattisgarh was kidnapped, tied up and gangraped for two days by three men, who kept her without food or water, and relentlessly savaged her.
Police rescued her on Wednesday after her family filed a missing person’s report. She was still tied up and gagged when they found her in a cattle shed, barely 300 metres from her home. Unable to free herself or call for help, she had lain there in agony, waiting for death.
Now in hospital, she has named three persons, including a government hostel superintendent and the relative of a woman sarpanch.
The 28-year-old survivor has told police that she had gone to fetch water from the village tap on September 13 when the trio — Vijay Kanwar, 30, Ramlal Kanwar, 30, and Hiralal Yadav, 26 – waylaid her.
They would hang around areas frequented by women and pass filthy comments, she said. That day, on finding her alone, they allegedly grabbed her and dragged her towards a forest.
She kept fighting the three men. Infuriated, the drunken trio tied up her legs and hands, gagged her and took turns to rape her in the forest, she has said. Then, they carried her to the home of Vijay, who works as a superintendent in a government hostel.
Cops found the rape victim tied up and gagged in cattle shed
They tied her down in a cattle shed in the backyard of Vijay’s house and continued raping her for two days, says her statement. They would take “breaks” and return to assault her. She was trussed up all the while and given no food or water.
Then, they simply left her. Battered and traumatized, she desperately needed help but couldn’t even let out a cry though she knew she was within earshot of her home. At the hospital later, she was found to be anaemic and suffering from chronic fatigue. She couldn’t have endured the torture much longer.
Police, meanwhile, had started looking for her after her parents sought help. Going house to house, they found the woman tied up and gagged in the cattle shed. She was immediately taken to hospital.
She is still weak and unable to speak much but managed to give her statement to police, naming the three men. The suspects were picked up from their homes and arrested after the survivor identified them, said police. Ramlal is a relative of the sarpanch. He and Hiralal are jobless.
