Patna: Police in Jharkhand state have launched a massive crackdown to nab the absconding rapists after five women engaged in a social awareness campaign were picked up at gunpoint and allegedly gang-raped.
The victims associated with a cultural organisation were engaged in a campaign against human trafficking and witchcraft which have claimed scores of lives in the mineral-rich state in recent years.
The incident took place at Kochang village in Jharkhand’s Kunti district early this week but was reported to the police on Thursday. Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das while condemning the incident has ordered for immediate arrest of the criminals engaged in the heinous crime.
Reports said the victims who were part of an 11-member cultural team were performing street corner play at a local school on Tuesday afternoon when some miscreants riding bikes and a car reached the spot and ordered them into the car. Subsequently, they took them to a nearby forest where they were allegedly gang-raped at gunpoint.
Police said the miscreants also shot a video of the entire crime and threatened to upload the videos on social media if they dared to report the incident to the police. They were freed from captivity after some three-four hours. All the victims are aged between 18 and 22. Two of the five victims are said to be married women.
“Massive raids are being conducted to nab the absconding accused persons. We have formed three separate teams to nab the miscreants, some of whom have been identified,” Ranchi’s deputy inspector general of police AV Homkar told the media on Friday. According to him, the medical examination of the victims has confirmed the rape.
Police investigating the case believe supporters of “Pathalgarhi”, a practice adopted by some tribal-dominated village in Jharkhand to declare their areas as sovereign and beyond the authority of elected governments, could be behind the incident. Some such villages have put up huge signboards and stone plaques on village borders, warning outsiders against entering ‘their’ areas without obtaining prior permission from village heads.
Officials said the cultural group was engaged in a social campaign against the human trafficking and witchcraft which has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.
According to an official report, altogether 183 women have been killed in Jharkhand in the past four years over witchcraft allegations. The shocking revelation was made by the home ministry in the Rajya Sabha in December last year. Of the 183 killed, 42 were killed in 2017 itself, according to the report.
