Protests broke out at Repalle after the incident came into light!
This is the fourth incident of gang rape in combined Guntur district and second incident happened inside a railway station in a span of two weeks. The first incident reported at Gurazala railway station in Palnadu district where a migrant worker from Maharastra was gang raped.
The 27-year-old woman, a mother of three and is six months pregnant, was comforting her baby in her lap when the three drunk youth, unmindful of her condition, raped her at the Repalle railway station late on Sunday night, the police said.
The victim woman along with her husband and three children came to Repalle by train from Guntur. They are residents of Yerragondapalem in Prakasam district recently came to Guntur in search of work.
They were on the way to Nagayalanka in Krishna district to find agriculture works. They took shelter in the Railway station on Sunday night as no transportation was available to Nagayalanka at that time.
While they sleeping on the cement benches in railway station, three miscreants entered the railway station at around the 1 a.m. They were in drunken state and started a fight with the husband on the pretext of asking time.
Police identified the adults as Vijayakrishna (20) and Nikhil (25). All three were reportedly drunk. "They took away 750 he had with him. When his wife intervened, the gang dragged her by the hair, and two of them, Vijayakrishna and the minor, raped her on platform number one of the station."
The husband escaped from them and called for help. He tried calling railway police supposed to there in the station but in vain. He said the police room was locked from inside and no one opened the door even after repeated knocking.
As the railway police did not respond, the husband came out of the Railway station and rushed to Repalle police station which is located about 200 metres away. He told the police about his ordeal and attack on his wife. Cops rushed to the spot along with the man.
Bapatla SP Vakul Jindal said that upon hearing the police serin, the prepetrators fled the scene.
The accused, residents of Netaji Nagar in Repalle, have been booked under IPC sections 376D (gang - rape), 384 (robbery) and 307 read with 34 (attempt to murder). A court later remanded them in judicial custody. "We are collecting technical evidence including CCTV footage and the chargesheet will be filed as soon as possible to ensure punishment to the accused," Jindal said.
Earlier, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy spoke to the SP and instructed the police to expedite the probe and provide all assistance to the family. AP Mahila Commission Chief Vasireddy Padma, too, expressed shock over the crime, and said the occurrence of such an incident at the railway station has to be considered seriously.
She ordered a thorough investigation on the security measures being taken at the railway station and instructed the railway officials concerned to submit a report. The survivor was shifted to Ongole GGH in the evening.
This was the second such incident reported in a railway station in the state. On April 16, 2022, four persons had gang-raped a woman from Odisha in Gurajala railway station in Palnadu district.
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