Fiancé beaten up, Dalit woman gang-raped during forest outing in MP; 3 held

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A 20-year-old Dalit woman, who had gone out with her fiancé, was allegedly gang-raped by four men in a forest area near Churhat in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh, Hindustan Times reported, citing a police official. The four men also assaulted her male partner.

Police have launched a manhunt to nab the absconding accused, three of whom have been detained, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Arvind Srivastava told PTI. He said the victim, a resident of an area under Churhat police station limits, had gone out with her fiancé on Tuesday.

After parking their motorcycle on the roadside, they went to a nearby hill. Four men roaming in the area spotted the couple, beat up the woman's fiancé, and chased him away, the police officer was quoted by HT as saying.

"After this, the accused took turns to rape the woman," Srivastava added. The official said that after escaping from the clutches of the accused, the woman contacted her fiancé, and both of them reached the Semaria police station.

The police registered a case on the duo's complaint and sent them to a community health centre in Semaria for treatment, said the ASP.

The opposition Congress targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over the gang-rape incident and added that the crime has exposed the sorry state of law and order situation in Madhya Pradesh.

State Congress president Jitu Patwari was quoted by HT as saying that the shameful incident tarnishes the entire humanity and also highlights the 'horrific state' of law and order.

"In the last three years alone, 7,418 incidents of rape of Dalit and tribal women, 338 gang-rapes, and 558 murders have been registered in Madhya Pradesh. On average, seven Dalit or tribal daughters are becoming victims of this cruelty every day. These figures prove the failure of the BJP government," the former minister added.