Two arrested for raping college student in Nagpur

Mumbai: A man allegedly raped a 19-year-old B.Com college student in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district, around 820km from here, the police said Sunday.

The accused and his friend were arrested within hours of the incident, which occurred on the night of November 2 along the Hyderabad-Jabalpur highway at Hudkeshwar, an officer said.

The incident occurred when two men spotted the girl and her male friend sitting together behind bushes at an isolated place, he said. The men then attacked the duo and one of them dragged her friend to the road while the other man raped her behind the bushes.

Before leaving, the accused told the girl that his two friends would be coming in sometime and told her not to leave, the official said. In the meantime, the male friend tried to stop vehicles plying on the highway for help, but to no avail, he said.

The official said the male friend couldn’t summon help immediately, as his mobile phone was switched off. “After some time, a truck driver stopped his vehicle and took him to the nearest eatery from where he contacted the police,” he said.

The police registered a case of gang rape under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and within hours picked up two suspects who are identified as Anil Thete (46) and Baba Bhagat (38), the official said.