Four women gangraped on Yamuna Expressway

New Delhi: A gang of six armed highway robbers struck at a family of eight, including four women, on Noida Expressway early Thursday morning in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Budh Nagar, shooting dead a man and looting cash and jewellery. They allegedly dragged all the family members in the field, looted them and gangraped the four women for hours before leaving a man shot dead.

According to the police, eight members of a family were travelling in Maruti Eco to Bulandshahr from Greater Noida’s Jewar. The victims were robbed off the cash they were carrying to help the unwell-pregnant sister of the deceased in Bulandshahr, said the brother-in-law of the deceased who was with him in the same van. They had borrowed the van from a neighbour. The deceased has been identified as Shakil, 38.

The family was waylaid by the gang at around 1.30 am when their car allegedly hit a metal object and stopped. When one of the family members stepped out of the van check tyres, the gang attacked the family. They looted cash and valuables and then raped the women, the police said. When the man tried to resist, he was shot dead.

“After crossing Sabota village, two tyres of the vehicle got punctured. The gang of six robbers targeted the vehicle after the driver stopped it near a roadside hut to fix a flat tyre. The occupants were attacked and, along with an old man who was in the hut, taken to a field nearby. The women were misbehaved with and a man was shot dead when he resisted,” said a police officer. The eight persons in the vehicle included four men and as many women — three couples, an elderly woman and her son. While six were from the same family, one of the couple was a neighbour they had requested to drive them to Bulandshahr and his wife. “We had only one spare tire. Salim made a call to the car owner to arrange for a second one. Even before he could complete the call, six men arrived at the spot armed with firearms, knives, hammers and rods,” one of the victim said. “The robbers snatched jewellery and Rs 47,500 in cash before tying the male passengers up with dupattas and taking the women to a field nearby. Police teams are working on the case,” said Love Kumar, senior superintendent of Gautam Budh Nagar. “The women are being taken for medical examination. The post-mortem is being done. Two other teams are hunting for the suspects.” He further said an FIR has been registered. Mohammad Haneef, who claimed to be the owner of the vehicle, said he heard a few unknown voices ordering the victims to move the car sideways before the call ended abruptly. The family added that all the phones were snatched and damaged by the assailants. The incident reminded the horrific gangrape of a woman and her 13-year-old daughter in July last year when they were travelling in a car from Noida to Shahjahanpur. The incident took place on the national highway passing through Bulandshahr.

The Sabota incident comes at a time when Opposition parties have been attacking the Yogi Adityanath government in the UP Assembly over the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state. The chief minister had recently said criminals in the state will not be allowed to go scot-free.