NEW DELHI, Sept 12: In a shocking incident, two trainee army officers were assaulted and robbed and their female friend gang raped by a group of armed men in the early hours of Wednesday near a scenic picnic spot on the outskirts of Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
The police have arrested two of the attackers, one of whom was found to have a criminal record, and booked for loot, assault and rape and are looking for others.
The incident happened near Jam Gate — a scenic picnic spot – under Badgonda police station area in Mhow sub division of Indore district. The spot is located around 50 km from Indore district headquarters and 25 km from Mhow.
Two young army officers – who were reportedly undergoing training at the army’s facility in the Mhow cantonment town – had gone with two women friends to a spot near the firing range at Chhoti Jam in the afternoon for picnicking. When they were returning from picnic late on Tuesday night with their two female friends at around 1.30 am, some 6-7 armed (one of them armed with pistol) men, all of whom hailed from a dominant tribal group of the region — spotted the two army officers and their female friends and started beating them up. The attackers appeared to have set upon the group, which was out on a ride at night, with the intention of robbing them.
The situation escalated when the attackers took one officer and a woman hostage, sending off the other officer and a woman to fetch a ransom of ₹ 10 lakh. The duo were freed by the captors at around 2.30 am and asked to return with the ransom money if they wanted their friends to be free.
When the freed duo didn’t return for around an hour, some of the armed men allegedly took the woman (held captive by them) into the adjoining forest area, where they allegedly raped her.
Meanwhile, the other officer and the woman with him reported the matter to the army authorities as well as the local police (Badgonda police station is around 15 km from the spot), after which the local police immediately swung into action. Police officers and military personnel rushed to the spot but the attackers fled on seeing the approaching vehicles leaving the officer and the raped woman behind.
All four were taken to the Mhow Civil Hospital for a medical examination around 6.30 am. Both officers suffered injuries. The medical examination confirmed that one of the women was raped, police said. “A case under (BNS) sections pertaining to loot, dacoity, rape and under the Arms Act has been registered,” the police added.
(Manas Dasgupta)