A woman was allegedly gangraped and her husband thrashed in Guntur of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday night. The couple were waylaid by a group of men near the Medikonduru bypass road of Guntur district. The Guntur police have picked up eight suspects and are interrogating them, according to reports.
The incident reportedly took place at 9.30 pm when the couple was returning home to Sattenapalli on a motorbike after attending a wedding function. They were stopped by men near the Paladugu crossroads. According to the Guntur police, the couple was first assaulted and robbed of their money and gold jewellery. After that, the woman was dragged to the nearby field, where she was allegedly gang-raped by the men.
The couple approached the Sattenapalli police station the same night to report the crime. Reports suggest they were redirected to the Medikonduru police station on the grounds that the crime had taken place in that jurisdiction. The case was ultimately registered around midnight.
The couple is undergoing treatment at the Guntur Government Hospital. Meanwhile, police sources told IANS that about eight men working in a nearby cold storage facility are being questioned.
Condemning the incident, opposition TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh criticised the police for sending the couple from one police station to another on jurisdictional issues.
In recent months instances of crime against women have turned political in Andhra Pradesh with opposition TDP condemning the YSRCP government for poor law enforcement. On Thursday, Nara Lokesh was detained by the Guntur Police enroute to Narasaraopet to meet the family of the Kota Anusha who was murdered this February by her stalker.
Other TDP leaders who were detained include, former minister A Raja, Sattenapalli. The Narasaraopet constituency in-charges Chadalawada Aravinda Babu, Kodela Sivaram, Gannavaram constituency in-charge Bachula Arjun, were placed under house arrest.
