A middle-aged woman was allegedly gangraped and murdered in West Bengal while a minor girl in Gujarat was gangraped, which led her to attempt suicide, as a rash of rape cases were reported in the country today in which two village officials were among the arrested.
As the outrage over the death of the 23-year-old gangrape victim in Delhi continued, there was a spurt in number of reported sexual assault cases in Punjab with many alleged victims coming forward with their complaints.
A man and his son were arrested for allegedly raping his teenaged daughter in Dombivili township of Thane district in Maharashtra while a 15-year-old dalit girl was allegedly raped and held captive for 15 days by three men in Dharauli village in Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The two village officials were arrested in connection with two rape incidents in Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh.
In the incident at Jagannathpur in West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district, the police said the woman's son, Alafaz Ali, had filed an FIR last night at the Barasat police station stating that his mother was gangraped and murdered and his father was poisoned and seriously injured.
Additional superintendent of police Bhaskar Mukherjee said the body of the 45-year-old woman was found near a brick kiln last evening bearing sharp wounds on the head.
The incident occurred when the woman went to look for her husband, a brick-kiln worker last evening. Six persons allegedly assaulted her, Mukherjee said.
Meanwhile, her husband returned home and went to look for his wife when he heard her cry for help and was in turn assaulted and forcibly made to consume some poisonous substance, he said.
The victim and her husband were rushed to Barasat State General hospital where the woman died
The police arrested one person today and detained eight others for interrogation.
In Gujarat, a minor gangrape victim allegedly attempted suicide by consuming poison at her residence today, the police said. The 14-year-old girl's condition is critical and she has been put on ventilator, they said.
The police said the minor was kidnapped in a car from Dholka town in Ahmedabad district and raped by two persons on December 6, following which her family members registered FIR on December 14.