Maharashtra Home Minister appoints woman IPS officer to probe into Ahmednagar incident

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday said the state government is appointing a woman IPS officer to investigate a case related to the alleged assault of a couple who were forced to withdraw a rape complaint.

The decision comes after a video of the incident went viral on social media.

Addressing a press conference, the Home Minister said, "Relatives of the woman and the investigation officer (IO) are accused in this matter. There are a total of eight accused in the case.

The victims had reported the incident to the police on several occasions but no accusation was proved."

The police said a woman and her husband were allegedly abducted, beaten up and stripped by eight people in Ahmednagar, forcing them to withdraw a rape complaint.

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Couple assaulted, forced to withdraw rape complaint

 A 29-year-old woman and her husband were allegedly abducted, stripped and thrashed by eight people to force them to withdraw an old rape complaint in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on February 24 near the civil hospital in Aurangabad but came to light after a video of the torment went viral on social media on Monday, said an official.

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"When the couple was going home in an autorickshaw at around 8:20 pm on that day, a person seated next to them subjected the couple to inhalation sedation.

They were then taken to a room, confined, and asked to withdraw a rape complaint lodged by the woman in 2016 against some of them," he said.

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The couple was stripped and thrashed and beaten with belts after petrol was poured on them, he said.

"After a video of the incident went viral on Monday, we approached the couple and registered a case of attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and other offences under IPC and Information Technology Act in Tophkhana police station against eight persons," the official informed.

Among those who assaulted the couple is the woman's brother, her two brothers-in-law, as well as two people who posed as policemen, he said. Ahmednagar in-charge Superintendent of Police Sagar Patil said no arrests have been made in the case as yet.

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