The Chhattisgarh police on Friday arrested a 23-year-old man for allegedly raping a 20-year-old woman in Kanker district, officials said.
The incident took place on Wednesday in Vyaskongera forest under Kanker police station limits, said police.
The police identified the accused as Ruhab Memon, general secretary of the Chhattisgarh unit of the National Student Union of India (NSUI)- a student wing of Congress, however, the office-bearers of NSUI claimed that Memon was expelled from the outfit before the alleged incident.
State president of NSUI Neeraj Pandey in a statement said Memon was expelled from the outfit on November 15, a day before the alleged rape incident.
“The NSUI state unit had organised three days ‘Uday Shivir’ from November 12 to 15 in Raipur and on the last day some inactive office bearers were suspended and expelled. Memon was among those expelled,” Pandey stated.
According to the police, the rape survivor, a college student, and the accused were known to each other.
“As per the woman, on November 16, the accused took her in his car to Vyaskongera forest on the pretext of outing and allegedly raped her,” said Kanker superintendent of police Shalabh Sinha.
Police said they were able to trace the location after the woman made a phone call to her classmate who contacted the police immediately.
“The victim tried to make a call but the accused snatched her phone and threw it on the back seat of the car. As the call was not disconnected, the victim’s classmate heard her screams and immediately contacted us and we traced the location of the phone,” Sinha said.
Accordingly, a team of officials reached the spot and arrested Memon.
The accused was held under sections 376 (rape), 376 (2)(n) (commits repeated rape on the same woman), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, said police.
