Woman from Palghar raped repeatedly on pretext of black magic rituals; five men arrested
Palghar (PTI): Five persons were arrested in Thane and Palghar districts in Maharashtra for allegedly raping a 35-year-old woman repeatedly after promising to remove "vastu mistakes" in her house and other "evils spells" through black magic, a police official said on Sunday.
The five persons who have been arrested are the victim's husband's friends and they told her that some evil spell had been cast on her husband and to regain peace she would have to be part of some rituals, the official said.
"The accused started frequenting the house of the victim from April 2018 and would conduct rituals when the victim was alone. They would give her a spiked drink calling it 'panchamrit' and would rape her," he said.
The accused also took gold and money from her claiming it was for various rituals that would ensure peace and prosperity and a stable government job for her husband, he said.
"She was raped in 2019 in Yeoor forest in Thane, then in a mutt of the main accused in Kandivali, in a resort in Lonavala. They took Rs 2.10 lakh as well as gold from her," he said.
After the woman from Talasari, a predominantly tribal area in the district, filed a complaint on September 11, a police team arrested Ravindra Bhate, Dileep Gaikwad, Gaurav Salvi, Mahendra Kumavat and Ganesh Kadam for the crime.
"We are finding out if the five accused have used the same modus operandi on others as well," Talasari police station senior inspector Vijay Mutadak said.
Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil, in an official release, said the five have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 376 (rape) 376(2)(n) (offence of committing rape repeatedly on the same woman) 420 (cheating).
The Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices and Black Magic Act 2013 has also been invoked, he said.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
