A 20-year-old woman's ordeal began four years ago near a village in the Indian city of Bhopal when she was married off by her poor father at the tender age of 16. Unable to meet the dowry demands of the in-laws, the girl was kept in a cowshed while she was pregnant and continuously raped by her husband, his relatives, neighbours and their friends.
She was taken away from her in-laws' home and kept at a relative's place, where she was raped by all the male members of that family. Her never-ending nightmare turned a shade worse when the man who took her to a hospital while she was critically ill, also raped her on the way, reports The Times of India.
Earlier, the woman was forced to abort her baby by her in-laws when she was barely 16. She was not given any food or water to drink for many days at-a-go while she was pregnant and forced to live along with the domestic animals (read cows and buffaloes) owned by her husband's family.
The story of this woman is worse than a B-grade Bollywood potboiler. The woman was sexually exploitated for more than 36 months until she was sold to a moneylender in exchange for Rs50,000 (about Dh3,500) by her husband's relatives after they had raped her for months.
As the girl's parents were not in a condition to pay the repeated demands of dowry, they were not allowed by the woman's husband to meet her after marriage. They were clueless about the girl's ordeal till a cousin saw the woman in the moneylender's place and reported it to her family members. The girl was finally rescued by her family.
The family filed charges against 10 people including husband, in-laws and others for subjecting her to cruelty, selling minor for purpose of prostitution, rape, kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage, house trespass, obscenity and criminal intimidation.
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