Four tribal girls gang raped in M.P.’s Balaghat; police nab seven men

Seven men were arrested on Friday (April 25, 2025) for allegedly gang raping four tribal girls, including three minors, when they were returning from a wedding in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district, police said.

According to the police, the horrific incident took place on April 23 around 1 a.m. in the Hatta police station area when the four girls, who were returning from a wedding, were abducted by the men and taken to the nearby woods.

Balaghat Additional Superintendent of Police Vijay Dawar told The Hindu that one of the accused was below 18 years while the other six were adults, and that they also beat up the girls’ uncle who had accompanied them. The accused belong to the OBC community, he said.

A case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 351, 70(1) (2), and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was filed based on a complaint from the survivors’ families. The girls were aged 13, 15, 16, and 21 years.

He said that the complaint was received on Friday morning and the accused were nabbed in the evening. “We have brought the girls to the hospital for their medical examinations,” he said.

Mr. Dawar said that the girls were from Duglai village and the accused hailed from neighbouring Bhagatpur, and that the girl’s knew one of the accused as their families worked as farm workers in his fields.

“The girls had gone to attend a wedding in Thakur Tola village. While returning when they were crossing Bhagatpur, the men caught hold of them, beat up the uncle and took the girls and gang raped them,” he said. 

Another police officer at the station said that the accused had also attended the same wedding and had chased after the girls on their bikes.

“They hit one of the bikes the girls were travelling to stop them,” he said, requesting anonymity.