Madhya Pradesh: FIR against journalist for raping girls; woman accomplice held

A case was registered against an elderly journalist and his female accomplice in Bhopal on Sunday in connection with the alleged rape of four girls and a woman, police said.

The police have taken the accused woman into custody, while the man is absconding, an official said.

"A case was filed against Pyare Miya (68) and his accomplice Sweeti Vishwakarma (21) under relevant sections of the IPC, including 376 (rape), and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for alleged sexual exploitation of four girls and a woman," Superintendent of Police (SP) of Bhopal (South) Sai Krishna Thota said.

The case was registered at the city's Ratibad police station and it will be transferred to Shahpura police station, under whose jurisdiction the crime took place, he said.

"The police had received information that four girls and a woman were roaming around in Ratibad area in a drunken state in the wee hours of Sunday," he said.

The police called the child helpline and later questioned the girls, who told them that a man named Pyare Miya had invited them to a birthday party during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday in a flat under the Shahpura police station area of the city.

One of these girls told the police that she was raped there by the man. The remaining four victims said that they had also been raped in the same flat by the accused on earlier occasions, Thota said.

Ratibad police station sub-inspector Sanjeev Jakhar said that Pyare Miya is a journalist.