Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh): The Balaghat district court on Thursday has sentenced three men to lifetime imprisonment for gang-raping a woman in the town in 2018, the district prosecution officials said. Additionally, a fine of Rs 20 thousand has also been imposed on the accused.

Special prosecution officer Kapil Kumar Dehariya told the media that in September 2018, the survivor, a married woman, had arrived at her parental house in Balaghat to celebrate Janmashtami. After the Janmastami festivities, she had been heading to her in-laws’ house, and was waiting at a bus stand in Balaghat for the bus to arrive.

During this, a man named Raju Parte arrived on a bike, and asked her where she had been going. When the woman told him she had been heading to her in-laws’ house, Parte offered to drop her there. He, instead of taking her to her in-laws’ house, took her to a deserted location, and called three of his friends, named Sevakram, Anil Tekam and Heeralaal, on the scene. All of them took turns to rape the woman, and tied her to a tree with her saree.

They fled from the scene after threatening her of dire consequences. Later, the woman managed to reach her house and narrated the ordeal to her family, after which a police complaint was registered. One of the accused, Tekam, is on the run till date, while the police managed to nab the other accused, and produced them in the court. The court pronounced the trio guilty on Thursday and sentenced them to imprisonment for life. Commissioner issues show cause notices for poor performance in handling revenue cases