Journalist 'gang-raped' in UP by 2 persons, 1 held
Pawan Dixit, Hindustan Times Varanasi, March 28, 2014
First Published: 18:35 IST(28/3/2014) | Last Updated: 20:37 IST(28/3/2014)
A 27-year-old journalist on assignment was allegedly gang-raped by two persons in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday night.
The woman, who is associated with a Hindi newspaper of Haridwar in neighbouring Uttarakhand and is a resident of the state, lodged a complaint with the police on Friday.
At a time when the nation is reeling under sex crimes, the Mirzapur shocker surfaced exactly a week after four persons were sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a telephone operator at Shakti Mills compound in Mumbai last year.
Acting on the journalist's complaint, the police arrested one of the accused, who was identified as Ashwani Tewari, later in the day.
The alleged crime took place in Vindhyachal, a place of Hindu pilgrimage. The woman, along with her sister, had arrived in the town last Monday to write a story on the historic temples of the region. They were staying at a local hotel.
The woman told the police that she had gone to Ashtabhuja temple, situated on a hill top, on Thursday afternoon. According to her, she came down around 8pm and headed for the Mirzapur-Allahabad highway to hire an auto.
She alleged three persons in a white Scorpio abducted her and took her to an isolated place. The woman added while two of them raped her, the other person refused to be a part of the crime after learning she was a journalist.
They allegedly dumped the woman in a forest area in the wee hours of Friday. The woman said she reached a nearby railway crossing and informed the gateman about the incident. Later, the woman underwent medical tests at a local hospital.
"One person has been arrested and the vehicle used for abducting the victim has been recovered," said RK Srivastava, deputy inspector general of police (Vindhyachal range). "Three teams have been constituted to arrest the remaining accused.”
