15-year-old girl raped, forced to change religion

In an appalling incident reported from Uttar Pradesh’s Bhagpat, a 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a man, his brothers and friends, the victim was also forced to change her religion, said police. The man, identified as Shahzad and his parents have been taken into police custody.

The teen girl came from the scheduled caste community and she has alleged that Shahzad, aged 26, had given his word to marry her, police said, further adding that on this pretext, he along with others by force changed her religion a year back.

According to Kotwali police station in-charge N S Sirohi, a case has been lodged against seven individuals and main accused Shahzad, his mother Gulfshan and father Haroon were taken into custody on Sunday. A manhunt is underway to trace others, he said.

Shahzad was already married and it has also been alleged that he reaped the victim several times, police said, further adding that the girl also stated that she was pregnant but was forced to undergo abortion.

The minor victim stated that she had objected, but was threatened with grave repercussions, as per police. Shahzad’s friends had also raped the victim, they said, quoting the compliantfiled by the victim’s family.

As maintained by the complaint, the victim was called by Shahzad to his residence on 6th July and was taken hostage, police said.

On 8th July, the teenager was raped by Shahzad’s brother Bilal and Farman, they stated quoting the complaint.

The teen victim’s family claimed that she came home on 10th July in a very terrified condition. When her health worsened, they insisted on taking her to see doctor on 17th July, she told  them about the incident, police said.

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