GONDIA: Four persons were arrested for allegedly raping a 20-year-old pregnant woman in front of her husband at Bhim Nagar locality on Monday night. The accused also badly thrashed the victim's husband and snatched Rs2 ,900 cash and mobile phone from the couple.

On the victim's complaint, police nabbed the accused Vicky Suryawanshi (20), who confessed to the crime. During interrogation, he revealed the names of his accomplices - Rushi Chandrikapure (25), Avinash Funde (23) and Nitin Khadse (23) - all residents of Gondia .

Suryawanshi told the police that they saw the young couple at Sanjay Nagar around 11pm and accosted them. The couple said that they were returning home after visiting their relatives in Chhota Gondia.

The accused allowed the victim and her husband to leave but started following them. The accused again stopped the couple near a library where they badly thrashed the victim's husband.

Police said, the accused then took the woman to a building construction site near the library and raped her for four hours till she fell unconscious. The victim told police that she was gang-raped in front of her husband who could not move as he was seriously injured.

After regaining consciousness, the victim approached the city police station about 3am on Tuesday and lodged the complaint. She was taken to the Government Women's Hospital, Gondia, where tests revealed that the she was four months pregnant.

Based on the description provided by the victim, police arrested Suryawanshi. The accused were booked under sections 376,341,146 394 (34) and were remanded to police custody.

