Out for picnic with husband, newlywed gang-raped in MP; all 8 accused nabbed

BHOPAL: The eighth accused in the gang rape of a newlywed bride at a picnic spot in MP ’s Rewa district was arrested from neighbouring Chhattisgarh late Friday night.

On Saturday, police produced all of them in court, which remanded five of them in police custody for a day, Rewa SP Vivek Singh said.

Police say the eight men had gone to the picnic spot at Bhairav Baba Sthan to cook litti-chokha when they chanced upon the newlyweds and decided to rape the bride, a 19-year-old. An audio confession of one of the accused is circulating on social media. The couple had gone to pray at Bhairav Baba temple and then walked towards a waterbody to sit for a while, unaware that they were being watched by eight men, aged 19-21. They were on their way back on a motorcycle when the goons surrounded them and dragged woman off the bike. They thrashed her and her husband, dragged him away and tied him to a tree. Then, they took turns to rape the woman and film it on their mobile phones.

SP Singh said five men raped the woman but all eight has been charged with gang rape, as per the law.