Telangana tribal woman gang-raped, husband assaulted for demanding pending wages

The four accused are presently absconding.

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A 30-year-old woman from a tribal community in Telangana was allegedly gang-raped for three days by her employer and his friends for seeking pending wages while her husband was tied up in an adjacent room and physically assaulted.

The sexual assault that allegedly started on the night of September 18 went on till September 21 before the woman and her husband managed to escape, and eventually contacted the Rachakonda police a week later.

The woman and her husband are both migrant labourers from Nagarkurnool and were employed with a poultry farm owned by one Prasad Reddy. He had hired the couple in May to manage the poultry with a monthly combined salary of Rs 15,000. Rachakonda police told TNM that the couple received salaries only for two months and were not paid for the months of August and September. In the second week of September, the couple demanded that their pending dues be paid.

On the night of September 18, Prasad Reddy reportedly asked the couple to assist him at his friends' poultry farm as there was an emergency. The accused allegedly took the couple in a car to a building where they were separated and kept in two rooms.

Prasad was joined by three other men who allegedly raped the woman for three days.

The couple managed to escape from where they were confined on September 21, and made their way back to the poultry farm of their employer. Prasad Reddy allegedly threatened to kill the couple if they spoke out about the sexual assault. The couple managed to file an FIR with the Pahadi Shareef police station under the Rachakonda police commissionerate only on September 26.

The police have booked cases against the four accused under charges of gang-rape and sections of the SC/ST Atrocities Act. The four accused are presently absconding.

Police say that the woman's condition is stable but that she has injury marks all over her body due to the assault. The husband, too, has been injured.

"Both the husband and the wife have injuries all over their body but their condition is stable. She has undergone a medical test and we are awaiting results," said Sunpreet Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda Commissionerate.