An 18-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide after being raped at Bothia village in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh.
According to police, the tribal woman was kidnapped by two men and sexually assaulted by one of them outside her village on Tuesday night. She returned home next morning and consumed poison after narrating her ordeal to her mother. She died at a hospital on Wednesday evening.
“Two men, residents of Jhallar town, abducted the woman while she was washing utensils in the backyard of her house in nearby Bothia village on Tuesday night. They took her to an isolated place outside the village,” Jhallar police station in-charge Nepal Singh Thakur said.
“While one of the accused, Pravin Rathore, raped her, his unidentified accomplice filmed the act on his mobile phone,” he said.
After the crime, the accused threatened her that if she told about the incident to anyone, they would make the video public.
“The woman returned home around 5 am on Wednesday and narrated her ordeal to her mother. After some time, she consumed a poisonous substance,” Thakur said.
As she started vomiting, the family rushed her to a nearby hospital. When her condition worsened, she was admitted to Betul district hospital in the afternoon. She died during treatment on Wednesday evening, the officer added.
According to Thakur, the police could not record her dying declaration.
A police team has been formed to nab the accused, who were booked under IPC sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping), 306 (abetment of suicide) and relevant sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The victim’s mother told the police that Rathore also called the woman’s fiancé over phone and informed him that he had raped her and filmed the act. They also allegedly threatened to kill him.
The victim’s post-mortem report is awaited, the officer said. PTI
