A gang of highway robbers allegedly dragged off and raped four women in a field in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Budh Nagar early on Thursday after ambushing their car, police said. A male relative trying to rescue them was shot dead.
The incident took place a family of eight, including four female members, two children accompanied by two men were travelling in a car when all of a sudden the armed robbers fired and punctured two of the tyres of the car.
The six looted cash and valuables from the family and then raped the women, the victims alleged. When the man tried to resist, he was shot dead.
The robbers took away jewellery and Rs. 44,000 in cash. The deceased has been identified as 25-year-old Shakeel Quraishi.
“It’s a heinous crime. An FIR has been registered. A man has been murdered. Four women have alleged gang rape. Police teams are working on the case,” said Love Kumar, senior superintendent of Gautam Budh Nagar. “The women are being taken for medical examination. The post-mortem is being done. Two other teams are hunting for the suspects.”
As per sources, the driver called the car owner after the car puncture took place, who thereafter called PCR; unfortunately no police help reached the spot on time.
Uttar Pradesh has the longest network of highways among all states, according to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) data. National Crime Records Bureau’s data for 2014 show the state also accounts for the highest number of highway crimes — 80% of the 84,000 cases of dacoity and thefts on highways across the country were recorded in Uttar Pradesh.
In a similar incident in 2016 at the Bulandshahr highway, a car was stopped by criminals, who dragged a 13-year-old girl and her mother to a nearby field and raped them.
The girl, along with her family, was going to attend a funeral, when armed men stopped their car, tied and beat up the men and gangraped the girl and her 35-year-old mother for almost three hours.
