Couple Stripped, Thrashed to Get Them to Withdraw Rape Complaint

The incident came to light after came to light after a video of the torment went viral on social media.

Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Arnica Kala/The Quint)

A 29-year-old woman and her husband were allegedly abducted, stripped and thrashed by eight people to force them to withdraw an old rape complaint in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, police said on Tuesday, 3 March.

Later, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh told the Assembly that a probe under Nashik Rural SP Aarti Singh and Ahmednagar Additional SP Deepali Kale, both women IPS officers, will be carried out and completed within one month.

The incident took place on 24 February near the civil hospital in Aurangabad, some 370 kilometres from Mumbai, but came to light after a video of the torment went viral on social media on Monday, said an official.

“When the couple was going home in an autorickshaw at around 8:20 pm on that day, a person seated next to them subjected the couple to inhalation sedation. They were then taken to a room, confined, and asked to withdraw a rape complaint lodged by the woman in 2016 against some of them,” he said.

The couple was stripped and thrashed and beaten with belts after petrol was poured on them, he said.

“After a video of the incident went viral on Monday, we approached the couple and registered a case of attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and other offences under IPC and Information Technology Act in Tophkhana police station against eight persons,” the official informed.

Among those who assaulted the couple are the woman's brother, her two brothers-in-law, as well as two people who posed as policemen, he said.

Ahmednagar in charge Superintendent of Police Sagar Patil said no arrests have been made in the case as yet. The matter was raised in the Assembly by Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.