Drug-addict husband let 7 friends rape wife as debt repayment

A 22-year-old woman from a village in India's Punjab state accused her husband of letting seven of his friends rape her. She told police that her husband is a drug addict and wanted money to buy drugs so he offered her to his friends, who too are addicts.

A family member of the victim added that the accused husband also owed money to these friends that they had lent him after his younger brother was injured in a road accident.

Police said they conducted an investigation after the woman filed the complaint in June and have now registered a formal complaint, charging the eight accused men under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The husband has been charged under Section 120B of the IPC over criminal conspiracy, while the seven rape accused face charges under Section 376.

Police have launched a manhunt to arrest the men, who also allegedly clicked images of the victim during the assault. The accused men were allegedly blackmailing the women, police told The Times of India.

The woman, who was raised by her grandfather, reportedly said in her complaint that she was married to the man in 2011 and also had a child with him. She added that her husband was addicted to drugs and often used to borrow money from his friends.

The victim's grandfather told police that her father — his son — died young following which her mother remarried and left the house. He raised her and married her off in 2011, but discovered later that her husband was addicted to drugs.