Pregnant woman gang-raped in Maharashtra, police yet to make arrests

Mumbai : Rape seems to be a never-ending threat to women in India. A group of eight men allegedly gang-raped an eight months pregnant woman in Sangli. The 20-year-old woman from Satara went to Turchi Phata in Tasgaon along with her hotelier husband for a business meeting.

An official of Tasgaon police station told IANS that the hotelier and his wife were on search to hire a couple for their hotel business.

The identified accused, Mukund Mane called him (the hotelier) to Turchi Phata saying that he knew someone who would be willing to take that job and asked him to pay Rs. 20,000 as an advance payment for them.

When the couple reached the location, Mane and his men started hitting them with pipes and sticks, robbed all the cash and gold ornaments. Later they tied up the man and locked him inside his vehicle and then allegedly gang-raped the woman.

Also, the rape accused warned them against informing the police claiming "they were locally very influential and nobody would listen to them".

Somehow, the couple managed to reach the Tasgaon police station and registered a complaint. The woman has mentioned the name of four of the eight accused - Mukund Mane, Sagar, Javed Khan and Vinod in her complaint. 

Now it’s been more than 48 hours that the incident took place but the police are yet to arrests the culprits.

Responding to the matter, Maharashtra State Commission for Women Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar has written to the Sangli Superintendent of Police to personally look into the case and submit a detailed report on the case as soon as possible.