College Girl Gangraped Inside Temple Premises in Indore, MP

Heart-breaking stories of rape or sexual assault have unfortunately become routine news pieces. And each time when it seems like humanity cannot stoop any lower. it manages to dash those hopes. In yet another horrific incident of crime against women, three people gang-raped a 23-year-old college girl inside an under construction temple in Madhya Pradesh.

The woman – according to the police – had come to Patlawad village near Dhamnod town to meet her male friend. She was waiting near the temple when one of the accused approached her and asked why she was all alone. Pretending that he is concerned about her safety, said the police, he asked the victim to move inside the temple premises where an idol of Lord Shiva is to be installed. He called two others who locked the temple’s gate and raped her one by one.

Later, the three men left her crying and fled. Immediately after the incident, she rang her male friend whose phone was switched off. She then dialled one of her other friend, who called the police.

Despite suffering from the ordeal, the girl did not lose her presence of mind and gave the police the description of her rapists. She also told the cops the motorcycle with which the men rode away had a 'Sanju Baba' sticker on it.

Based on the description she gave, the cops managed to nab 30-year-old Sanjay Patel who is said to have confessed to his crime. He also named two of his accomplice Mahadev Patidar and Akhilesh Patel.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), cases under the category of “crime against women” registered an increase of 2.9 percent in 2016 over 2015. Majority of these cases were “cruelty by husband or his relatives” (32.6 percent) followed by “assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty” (25.0 percent), “kidnapping and abduction of women” (19.0 percent) and “rape” (11.5 percent).

Rape cases – said NCRB data released in December last year – have reported an increase of 12.4 percent (38,947 in 2016 from 34,651 cases in 2015). Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh reported the highest incidence of rapes with 4,882 (12.5 percent) and 4,816 (12.4 percent) respectively, followed by Maharashtra 4,189 (10.7 percent) during 2016.

Uttar Pradesh reported 14.5 percent (49,262) of the total cases of crimes against women followed by West Bengal (9.6 percent) (32,513 cases), during 2016. Delhi reported the highest crime rate (160.4) compared to the national average rate of 55.2 percent.

Responding to certain incidents of rape in India and subcontinent, spokesperson of the chief of the Union Nations (UN) termed such cases as “heart-breaking”.

Recently, an eight-month-old baby was raped by her 28-year-old cousin in New Delhi – an incident that triggered shock and outrage across the country.