Bhopal: Amid lockdown, bank manager raped inside her home
A lockdown has been imposed across the nation to curtail the spread of coronavirus but that has clearly not stopped crimes against women. Case in point Bhopal, where a visually-challenged bank manager, said to be 53 years old, was raped inside her apartment in posh Shahpura area on Friday. Her husband is in Rajasthan, stranded due to the lockdown. Here's what happened.
The survivor lived on the second floor of a three-storied building and was alone in her home for the last few days. Her husband and other family members are in the Sirohi district of Rajasthan. Troubled due to humidity inside her home, she opened the balcony door. Around 3:30 am, an unidentified man entered from the door to rape her, reports NIE.
After committing the heinous crime, the accused locked the main door and took the woman's mobile phone with him. Her cries for help alerted the neighbors who rescued her. Police Officer Sanjay Sahu said the accused probably used the stairs to get to the second floor. "I was sleeping in my home when an unidentified man barged into the room and raped me," the victim's complaint read.
"We have registered a case of rape under Section 376 (rape) and other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC). A hunt is on to nab the accused," Inspector Chandra Bhan Patel of Shahpura Police station told PTI. The woman was sent for medical examination.
Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in Madhya Pradesh are rising. An HT report said that in the last three days, 430 fresh cases were reported from Indore alone. Till Friday evening, 842 cases were reported. The state's tally stands at 1,310 with 69 people losing their lives. If this trend continues, Madhya Pradesh will soon overtake Tamil Nadu as the third-most affected state.
The health crisis has put newly-inducted Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the receiving end of criticism. With no Cabinet, and more importantly a health minister in place, Chouhan has been ridiculed. But he blamed his predecessor Kamal Nath for not doing enough against coronavirus. To note, when COVID-19 cases first sprung, the state was going through a power shift from Congress to BJP.
