Sangli, August 2: In a shocking incident, an eight-month pregnant woman from Satara was gang-raped by eight men in Sangli on Tuesday. Maharashtra State Commission for Women on Thursday sought a report from the local police. The incident occurred when the 20-year-old woman, along with her hotelier husband, had gone to Turchi Phata in Tasgaon for a business meeting.

An official of Tasgaon police station told IANS that the hotelier and his wife were on the lookout to hire a couple for their hotel business. One of the accused, Mukund Mane, had called the hotelier to Turchi Phata. He claimed he had found such a couple who was ready to work for them. Mane even asked the hotelier to bring Rs 20,000 as advance payment for them. After reaching the location, Mane and his men robbed the couple of their belongings. They assaulted the couple and locked the husband in the car. The accused then raped the 20-year-old pregnant woman

After committing the crime, the accused threatened the couple for not telling anybody about the incident as they were locally very influential. Later, the couple managed to reach the Tasgaon police station and registered a complaint. The victim has named four accused out of eight in her FIR. The names of the four accused are Mukund Mane, Sagar, Javed Khan and Vinod. Nearly 48 hours after the incident, the police have not made any arrests.

Maharashtra State Commission for Women Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar took note of the incident. Rahatkar has written to the Sangli Superintendent of Police to personally look into the case and submit a detailed report on the matter.

Taking note of increasing cases of sexual assault, the Centre  is mulling to establish a total of 1,023 FTSCs (fast-track special courts) to try cases related to the rape of children and women. According to the law ministry, estimated expenditure for setting up of these courts will be around Rs 767.25 crore out of which Rs 464 crore as central funding on the pattern of the centrally sponsored scheme.

(With agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 02, 2018 07:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).