RAIPUR: A 37-year-old widow was allegedly gangraped by three men in Chhattisgarh’s Balod district, with the survivor claiming that village elders initially tried to hush up the case by taking Rs 40,000 each as fine from the accused before she finally approached police. Police have arrested two accused while one is at large. Police said the incident took place on the night of Feb 22 at a village in Balod and as per the survivor’s complaint, she had gone to fill water when one of the accused, Vikas Sinha, who was returning after a liquor party at co-accused Roshan Kumar Sahu’s house, spotted her and called another associate, Kamal Kumar Sen.The two allegedly dragged the woman to a secluded spot about 300 metres away and later called Roshan there. The survivor alleged that all three men raped her one after another till around midnight.SDOP Boniface Ekka said the matter had first gone before village leaders at the community level. The woman alleged that instead of ensuring justice, the accused were let off after a cash penalty of Rs 40,000 each was collected from them.When she did not get justice at the village level, she approached the police, following which an FIR was registered on March 13.ASP Monika Thakur said the case was serious in nature. Two accused including Vikas Sinha, 26, and Kamal Kumar Sen, 23 have been arrested, while the third accused, Roshan Kumar Sahu, 24, is absconding and efforts are on to trace him.A case has been registered under relevant provisions of BNS, including gangrape charges, along with Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Police said the survivor had been living at her parental home after the death of her husband. Among the accused, Roshan is a ward panch, Vikas is a market contractor and Kamal works as a driver.
