Gang-rape, looting in UT village
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 26 — A gang of armed miscreants that has spread terror in the rural areas of the Union Territory struck again — within six days of the previous incident — last night, raping two women at gunpoint, injuring two male members and looting jewellery and cash from a house in Raipur Khurd.

The leader of the gang, Santa Singh, was, however, caught within four hours of the incident by a Chandigarh Police constable. Four other members managed to give the police the slip by hiding in the dense growth in the woods along the Sukhna choe near Makhan Majra village.

A newly married woman and her young aunt were gangraped by the five drunken men at gun point as 20 other members, including husbands of the two women, five other male members, women and children, were locked up in adjoining rooms. Requests by members of the family that the rapists could kill all of them or take anything from the house in lieu of the honour of their women fell on deaf ears.

The rapists were carrying a .12 bore single barrel rifle, a pistol and another toy pistol besides, daggers, sickles, iron rods and lathis, according to the victims. Each time one of the family members protested or tried to speak against the crime a gun was pointed at him, the victims told media-persons.

According to one of the family members the alleged rapists tore shreds from the saree worn by one of the woman and used it to tie up her husband. The other woman's husband was hit with an iron rod and was seriously injured. Hari, a brother-in-law of one of the women, was hit on his foot with the butt of the rifle.

The family, hailing from UP, lives in the official accommodation provided near a tubewell run by the Municipal Corporation. The tubewell is located at a secluded spot around 100 metres into the woods. This was the third time that different sets of robbers had struck at the house.

The ordeal for the women and their family members lasted two hours after the gang reached their house around 10.30 p.m. A member of the gang reportedly made a recce of the house two days ago on the pretext of drinking water at the tubewell.

On reaching the house they woke up Ram Kumar, who was sleeping in a hut outside. Ram Kumar is not a family member but had been sleeping at the tubewell for the past few days. "At gunpoint the gang asked me to tell the family members to open the iron door as some official had come," Ram Kumar told mediapersons. Once the gang was inside they rounded up everyone in one room.

Mansa Ram and his wife who were sleeping on the terrace were woken up and brought downstairs. The hands of Mansa Ram were tied behind his back while Bhanu Pratap was hit on the head and injured seriously as their respective wives were raped. One of the women tried to raise an alarm but was hit on her face by one of the gangsters.

Before leaving the house they asked all the four women in the house to bring out their jewellery and asked the males for the cash. They ran away in the dark and bolted the door from outside. The raped women opened the doors for their family members, who went to the roof and shouted for help around 12.45 a.m. today.

According to the family the gang comprised 10 or 12 members. The nabbed gang leader has, however, told the police during interrogation that his gang had eight members and five of them were present last night.

The police has registered a case of rape, armed robbery under Sections 376, 395, 342, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC and 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act. The accused was remanded to police custody by the Ilaqa magistrate.