Agra: Five Men Drag Woman Inside Homestay Room, Gang Rape Her

Five people have been arrested in connection with an alleged gang-rape of a woman in a homestay in Uttar Pradesh's Agra, police said on November 12. The survivor told the police that she was forced to consume alcohol before being assaulted.

Four men and a woman have been arrested by the Tajganj police in Agra, under Sections 376D (gangrape), 323 (voluntarily caused hurt), 307 (attempt to murder) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 7 and 8 of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. The survivor has been sent for a medical examination.

Forced to drink by a friend, tortured 

The survivor, a mother of four, was an employee at the homestay, who had been working there for one and a half years. She told the police that she was invited to there for a Diwali celebration on Saturday night, but was forced to drink by another employee, held in a room and brutally beaten up.

The survivor also told the police that she was earlier coerced to give Rs. 4.5 lakhs to the accused persons, who had also been blackmailing her with an objectionable video that one of them had taken of her.

According to media reports, a crowd had gathered outside the homestay room upon hearing the woman's screams, but instead of helping, they took videos of the incident, which are now being circulated on social media. Police have acquired one such video in which the woman can be seen pleading for help as she was being dragged into the hotel room, and later lying on the ground, alleging "torture".

"On Saturday night, Tajganj police received a call that in Rich Homestay, a woman here had been raped and assaulted. According to the complaint filed by the victim, a case has been filed under relevant sections," Archana Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Agra Sadar, said on Sunday.

ACP Archana Singh also said that the main accused in this case is Jitendra Singh Rathore and his three friends, Ravi, Manish and Dev. The identity of the accused woman has not yet been disclosed. 

Similar Recent Case in Karnataka

Police arrested three teenagers from Maddur, Karnataka, two of them minors, on November 10 for gang-raping their school-mate, a minor girl belonging to a scheduled tribe. The accused have been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The survivor's mother filed the complaint on November 10, stating that one of the accused persons (19) had befriended and wooed her daughter during a fest in October. He then invited her to a hotel room on November 4, raped her with his two friends (both 17), and videotaped the incident and blackmailed and threatened to kill the girl.

Suggested Reading: Why Combating Gender-Based Violence Is Crucial For Global Development