A 36-year-old tribal woman was allegedly gangraped by seven persons at a tribal hamlet in Raghunadhapalem mandal around Friday midnight.
The incident sparked an outcry from women’s organisations and triggered a massive protest here.
Sources said two bike-borne miscreants whisked away the married woman, who was alone at her house in a tribal hamlet situated along the Khammam-Pangidi road, late in the night.
They took her to fields near Harya Thanda, where two of their accomplices joined them.
The four miscreants took turns to rape the hapless woman, sources added.
They reportedly called their three other accomplices to the spot.
On hearing the screams of the victim, some passersby alerted the police about the suspicious movement of bike-borne youths near the farm over phone.
A mobile police party rushed to the spot. But, the miscreants managed to flee, sources said.
The Raghunadhapalem police shifted the rape victim to the district headquarters hospital in Khammam for medical examination.
The police registered a case and reportedly detained a few suspects belonging to two nearby villages for questioning, sources said.
Police suspect the involvement of an engineering student in the heinous crime.
Additional DCP Injarapu Pooja and other police officials inspected the scene of crime and launched a thorough probe into the incident.
Infuriated by the gruesome incident, activists of the AIDWA and various youth organisations staged a rasta roko in front of the District Headquarters Hospital here late in the afternoon.
They blocked the main road for nearly half an hour demanding immediate action to bring the culprits to book and ensure harsher punishment to the rapists and speedy justice to the victim.
