Vijayawada: Three persons were arrested on Sunday following the gang-rape of a housewife at Repalle railway station premises in Bapatla district on Saturday night.
The accused were P Vijaya Krishna, P Nikhil and a minor, all residents of Netaji Nagar near the railway station. They were daily wagers and one of them had also been involved in three theft cases.
According to the police, the woman along with her husband and three children had reached the railway station at night. A gang of three men beat the husband and forcibly took the woman to a secluded place at one end of the railway platform and raped her.
Bapatla SP Vakul Jindal said that the family came to Repalle from Tenali by a train at 11pm and wanted to proceed to Nagayalanka. No transport was available at that time and hence they slept on the platform.
“The men approached the husband around 1am. They beat him up and snatched a cash of`750 from him. When the woman pleaded that her husband be spared, the accused pulled her aside, forcibly grabbed her hair, dragged her along the platform and raped her,” he said.
The husband rushed to the Repalle town police station with a complaint. The cops immediately reached the railway station. However, “on hearing the police siren, the accused fled from the spot. The police shifted the victim to a hospital and began checking vehicles on the road to trace the accused, based on the CCTV footage,” police said.
A pair of footwear and bangles recovered from the scene of the offence gave leads to the clues team and the sniffer dog squad. The special squad arrested the three men around 1pm on Sunday.
A case has been registered against the accused under Section 376 (d) (gang rape) IPC, 394 IPC (voluntarily causing hurt while committing robbery) and 307 IPC (attempt to murder).
