Couple tortured in Maharashtra to force them to withdraw rape complaint

Woman, husband stripped, beaten up by 8 including her brother, brothers-in-law

The Ahmednagar police late on Monday registered a case against eight people for allegedly stripping and mercilessly beating up a husband and wife last month. A video clip of the disturbing incident surfaced recently.

According to the police, the gruesome incident, which was recorded by one of the miscreants, occurred sometime last month near Ahmednagar civil hospital, with the wrongdoers allegedly trying to intimidate the couple to withdraw a rape complaint filed by the woman against them in 2016.

The police said the miscreants include the woman’s brother, her two brothers-in-law and two others pretending to be policemen.

Drugged, abducted

The husband and wife were apparently returning from the hospital in an autorickshaw late last month when they were given an inhalation drug by a person who was seated next to them and abducted.

The victims, in their complaint to the police, said they were taken to a room and confined there. The miscreants then allegedly threatened the couple to withdraw the complaint filed against them by the woman accusing them of gang-raping her in 2016.

The couple were then stripped and hung upside down, while repeatedly being thrashed with belts.

“After seeing the clip, we have registered a case of attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and other offences under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act against eight people,” said an official from Ahmednagar’s Tofkhana police station.

The victims told the police they were also doused with petrol by the miscreants, who warned them that they would pay with their lives unless they retracted the 2016 complaint.

‘No faith in police’

Meanwhile, speaking to a vernacular channel, the couple said they had no faith in the Ahmednagar police, who had delayed registering the woman’s rape complaint in 2016. They demanded that the case be handed over to the State Criminal Investigation Department.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party raised the matter in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said a woman IPS officer would be appointed to investigate the case and the probe would be completed within a month’s time.