Highway horror: 4 women gang-raped, man shot dead by gang of 6 robbers in India's Uttar Pradesh

In a horrific incident in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, four women of a family were allegedly gang-raped and a man was shot dead by a gang of six robbers on Thursday morning, 25 May.

According to the Times of India, the incident occurred in Greater Noida, a few kilometres away from the Yamuna expressway, as seven family members along with a driver were travelling by a car to the city of Bulandshahr to visit a relative who had given birth.

At around 1.30am local time, the criminals dragged the eight passengers to a field after they managed to stop the vehicle by planting spikes on the road.

After that, four male passengers were made to squat and were tied up in execution-style with the women's dupattas.

One of them, a 38-year-old scrap dealer, resisted to the act and was shot in the chest from point-blank range. He died on the spot.

The women who were caught by the gang included his wife (35), sister (35) and sister-in-law (50).

The police rescued family members after nearly two hours of the incident. The cops were alerted by Haneef, the owner of the car and from whom the scrap dealer had hired the vehicle.

The scrap dealer had managed to call Haneef to inform him about the breakdown of the car before the gang attacked them.

The scrap dealer's brother-in-law, who was one of the passengers, told the Times of India newspaper: "They dragged us deep inside the fields in the dark and fired in the in air to scare us. They snatched our mobile phones, purses and whatever jewellery the women had on them. When they started groping the women, we resisted. My brother-in-law (the scrap dealer) put up a resistance. The criminals first fired a bullet into the ground and then shot him in the chest. We begged them to spare us so that we could admit him to hospital. We also told them we won't report the matter to anybody but they did not listen. They were cruel and heartless."

The four women were brought to the district hospital in Noida on Thursday morning and examined by a team of two senior gynaecologists for three hours.

A case of gang-rape, dacoity and murder had been registered against six unnamed persons at Jewar police station.