Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh police on Saturday arrested eight people on charges of abducting a 13-year-old Class 9 student and gang-raping her twice in eight days, causing her acute trauma, officials said on Sunday.
The accused were arrested under section 376 (d) (gang rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under relevant section of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. Police have identified the eight accused Akash Singh, Rahul Kushwaha, Paras Soni, Manu Kewat, Onkar Rai, Eitendra Singh, Rajnish Choudhary and Rohit Yadav. All the accused are in the age group of 20 to 30 years and they will be produced in court on Monday.
Umaria superintendent of police Vikas Shahwal said the girl was in trauma and was being counselled.
“The girl, a Class 9 student, stays with her father in Jabalpur. She had come to Umaria from Jabalpur to meet her mother in December,” the SP said.
Giving details of the sequence of events, the SP said while the girl was on her way to Jabalpur, she met a person identified as Akash Singh on January 1 in Umaria. On January 4, Akash Singh contacted her again and took her to a nearby eatery.
“Akash Singh, with dhaba {eatery} owner Paras Soni, and a shopkeeper, Onkar Rai, raped the girl for the first time on January 4 at Soni’s dhaba at Umaria. Out of fear, she didn’t share her ordeal with anyone,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“Akash Singh, with dhaba {eatery} owner Paras Soni, and a shopkeeper, Onkar Rai, raped the girl for the first time on January 4 at Soni’s dhaba at Umaria. Out of fear, she didn’t share her ordeal with anyone,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Quoting the girl’s statement to the police, Shahwal said Akash Singh and a man identified as Rahul met her in a market in Umaria on January 11. “They asked her to join them for lunch to apologise for their act. They took the girl to a forest and raped her,” said Shahwal.
Her trauma did not end there.
Singh and his friend took her back to the eatery, where she was held hostage for a whole night.
“Later, Paras Soni and four others raped her. The girl requested the accused to leave her. The girl was sent to her home in a truck. She shared her trauma with the truck driver, Rohit Yadav, who instead of informing the police, raped her. The truck driver left her near a toll plaza on Umaria-Katni road. She flagged down another truck and the unidentified driver too raped her. The girl somehow reached her home on January 13 and informed the police,” the SP said.
A senior police officer, requesting anonymity said that although she had gone missing on January 11, her family did not register a complaint until January 12. “Her family told us that they were searching for her themselves,” the officer said.
The SP said the entire family was in extreme trauma and shock. “The victim’s parents are being counselled as they are in shock and depression,” the SP said. He added that the father was a contractual employee in a government office in Jabalpur whereas the mother lived in their ancestral village in Umaria.
The police are yet to identify the second truck driver.
On Sunday, the police razed the eating place run by Paras Soni and the shops of all other accused.