BHOPAL: Unable to meet dowry demands of in-laws, a 20-year-old woman was allegedly kept locked in a cowshed for three years and repeatedly raped by her husband, his relatives and neighbours in a village in Sagar district of the state. The hapless woman faced sexual exploitation for 36 months till she was sold to a moneylender for Rs 50,000 this May as her parents were in no condition to pay dowry to in-laws. When she fell critically ill, a neighbour took her to a hospital, but he too allegedly raped her on the way. In a chance encounter, a relative of the victim spotted her at the moneylender’s house and reported the matter to her father.

On July 1, the woman went to the Rahatgarh police station with her relatives and narrated the harrowing tale, leaving the police baffled. According to the office of the SP Sagar, the woman was married to Anand Kurmi of Parasri Tyonda village five years ago. Soon after the marriage, the in-laws allegedly began mentally and physically torturing her for more dowry. “They had demanded Rs one lakh during the wedding, which we paid,’’ said victim’s father Ram Kisan, a farmer with a meagre land holding of 2.5 acre.

“But they kept making demands even after the marriage. They wanted a colour television, motorbike, tractor and Rs one lakh more in cash. They would beat my daughter and wouldn’t give her food,” he said. When the girl, then aged 16, got pregnant – the in-laws, including brother-in-law Niraj, his wife Uma Bai and mother-in-law Kala Bai forced her to abort the child. Two years after the marriage, the in-laws decided that she was no longer going to live with them in the same house.

The life of the hapless woman was even beyond the imagination of a Bollywood script writer. The in-laws locked the girl, then 16 and pregnant, with cows and buffaloes in the cowshed. For days on end, she had to go without food and water. A neighbour, identified as Guddu Maharaj and his friends , repeatedly raped her for months in the cowshed.

Husband Anand Kurmi, in the meantime, allegedly shifted the victim to a relative’s house in Khurai 25 km away. Here, the relative, a middle-aged Ram Singh and his sons Narendra and Lokendra did not spare the girl. Father and sons allegedly locked the girl in the house and raped her for more than 20 days. The barbarity did not stop at it. Ram Singh sold the victim to a moneylender Dwarka Prasad from Mahuna village near Khurai in May this year. Ram Singh claimed he was the father of the girl and the deal was finalised for Rs 50,000 in cash and one acre land in Mahuna. The young woman’s troubles did not end and her sexual exploitation continued. When she fell critically ill one day, a neighbour in Mahuna village, identified as Khadak Singh, assured that he would take to a hospital for treatment. But on the way to the health centre, the woman was raped by him. She was brought back to the moneylender’s house where by sheer chance, a cousin of her spotted the woman.

“We kept visiting her in-law’s residence in Parasri Tyonda,” said Ram Kisan, his voice choked as he spoke. “They said we could not meet her till we gave the dowry. I did not have the faintest idea that my daughter was going through hell. Then word reached us that she was in a moneylender’s house in Khurai and had been sold. This made the family to rush and rescue her from the monsters,” he added.

On June 28, the victim was rescued by her family members and brought to her father’s house in Madhdevra village. Two days later, they decided to go to the police and report the matter. Police registered a case against ten persons, including husband, in-laws and others under Sections 498A (husband or his relative subjecting a woman to cruelty), 372 (selling minor for purpose of prostitution), 376 (rape), 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage), 450 (house trespass), 294 (obscenity), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (common intention) of the IPC. Police arrested three of the accused, including Khadak Singh, who raped her on the way to the health centre, moneylender Dwarka Prasad and Ram Singh, who sold the victim.