Police add gangrape charge against three held for woman's murder in Thane district

Thane: The police have added the charge of gang rape against three attendants of a temple arrested in connection with the murder of a 30-year-old woman in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Friday.

An additional charge under 70 (1) (gang rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was added in the case apart from section 103(1) (murder), an official from the Shil Daighar police station said.

The case was registered on July 9, and the accused were arrested the day after, he said.

The accused, Rajkumar Ramfer Pandey (54), Santoshkumar Ramyagna Mishra (45) and Shyamsunder Pyarchand Sharma (62), were attendants at a temple at Kalyan Phata in Thane, the official said.

The victim left her house after a dispute with her in-laws on July 6 and took shelter in the temple on a hill top, where she was allegedly raped and killed by the trio. Her body was dumped in a valley and recovered on July 9, the official said.