Mother of 3 abducted, gangraped in Kathua

A mother of three children was allegedly abducted and gang-raped by three men in a remote village of Hiranagar subdivision in Kathua district late on Thursday night.

Lying on a hospital bed with a veil around her face, the victim, on Friday narrated her nightmarish experience at the hands of three men to the media. “Last night, I had gone outside my house to attend nature’s call when three men gagged my mouth, abducted me and took to an isolated place. They first thrashed me and then raped me,” she said.

The woman alleged that she kept pleading the rapists to let her go home but they didn’t listen to her pleas and took turns to rape her. “If a mother of three children is not safe in this country then one could gauge the fate of young girls. ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ is just a slogan and nothing else. This is how they are going to protect women and daughters,” the woman said.

One of the rapists, who was carrying an axe, threatened to kill me if I narrated the incident to anyone, the victim claimed.

However, on Friday morning when her husband came home, she narrated the incident to him and then they lodged an FIR against the three men at Rajbagh police station.

Husband of the victim is a marginal labourer, who often has to remain away from his house, to eke out a living for the family.

Station house officer of Rajbagh police station, inspector Devinder Singh, said the medical examination of the victim has been conducted and the report was awaited. “We have lodged an FIR under Sections 376 and 323 of the Ranbir Penal Code against the three men,” he said. However, the police have so far not been able to arrest any of the accused.