Ashish Raghuvanshi. Guna<\/span>5 minutes ago<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A gang allegedly targeting newly dating couples on the Guna highway has been busted, with police arresting five people in connection with a recent robbery and alleged attempt to sexually assault a woman.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to police, the gang would spot couples travelling on the highway, follow them on motorcycles and stop them by pretending that their own motorcycle had suffered a puncture or breakdown. Once the couple stopped, other gang members hiding near the roadside or in the adjoining forest would emerge.<\/p>\n The victims would allegedly be forcibly taken into the forest, where they were assaulted and robbed, while the woman was allegedly subjected to an attempted sexual assault.<\/p>\n The gang’s modus operandi came to light during the investigation into an incident involving an engineer and his fianc\u00e9e. Police suspect the accused may have targeted several other couples in a similar manner, but victims allegedly did not report the incidents due to fear of social stigma.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Five accused have been arrested, while two remain absconding.<\/p>\n Each gang member had a specific role<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the police investigation, the gang members had clearly defined roles.<\/p>\n Two accused would ride motorcycles along the highway looking for couples. The remaining members would hide in the forest near the highway.<\/p>\n Once the spotters identified a potential target and signalled the others, the entire group would become active.<\/p>\n Police took the accused into custody.<\/span><\/p>\n Couples were surrounded within seconds<\/strong><\/p>\n The accused would ride alongside a couple and claim that their motorcycle had a punctured tyre or some other mechanical problem.<\/p>\n As soon as the couple stopped to check on them, the other gang members would arrive and surround them.<\/p>\n The couple would then allegedly be forced away from the highway and taken into the forest, where they would be out of sight of passing motorists.<\/p>\n Robbery followed by attempted sexual assault<\/strong><\/p>\n Once the victims were taken into the forest, the accused would allegedly first take their mobile phones, wallets and other belongings.<\/p>\n If the victims resisted, they were allegedly assaulted. The woman would then allegedly be subjected to an attempted sexual assault.<\/p>\n Police said the engineer and his fianc\u00e9e were allegedly attacked using the same method.<\/p>\n Passerby\u2019s alert saved woman from further assault<\/strong><\/p>\n The incident involving the engineer and his fianc\u00e9e took place on Thursday evening as they were returning from Hanuman Tekri.<\/p>\n Near a petrol pump close to Gader village, the accused allegedly stopped the couple and took them into the forest, where they were assaulted and robbed.<\/p>\n The accused were allegedly attempting to sexually assault the woman when a passerby alerted the police by calling Dial-112.<\/p>\n Police reached the spot, prompting the accused to flee and preventing a more serious incident.<\/p>\n Police suspect several earlier incidents<\/strong><\/p>\n During interrogation, police reportedly found indications that the gang may have previously assaulted, robbed and harassed several couples.<\/p>\n However, no formal complaints have been received so far.<\/p>\n Police suspect that some victims may have remained silent because of concerns about social stigma and public embarrassment.<\/p>\n Five arrested within 24 hours<\/strong><\/p>\n Based on technical evidence, CCTV footage and information gathered from local residents, Dharanawada police arrested five accused within 24 hours.<\/p>\n The arrested accused have been identified as Bablu, Chhotu, Sardar, Mahendra and Dinesh Banjara.<\/p>\n Two other suspects remain on the run.<\/p>\n One accused had previously faced rape case<\/strong><\/p>\n Police said a rape case had been registered against accused Dinesh Banjara in 2020.<\/p>\n However, the complainant later changed her statement in court, following which Banjara was acquitted.<\/p>\n Police are now examining his criminal record and investigating whether he was involved in any earlier incidents linked to the gang.<\/p>\n Mobile phone, purse and other items recovered<\/strong><\/p>\n SP Hitika Vasal said a reward of \u20b910,000 each had been announced for the five accused.<\/p>\n Police have recovered the male victim’s clothes, the slippers belonging to both victims, the stolen mobile phone and purse.<\/p>\n The motorcycle allegedly used in the crime was abandoned at the scene when the accused fled.<\/p>\n According to police, the woman’s medical examination confirmed an attempted sexual assault.<\/p>\n SP Vasal said efforts to arrest the absconding suspects are continuing and that strict action will be taken against all those involved.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ashish Raghuvanshi. Guna5 minutes ago A gang allegedly targeting newly dating couples on the Guna highway has been busted, with police arresting five people in connection with a recent robbery and alleged attempt to sexually assault a woman. According to police, the gang would spot couples travelling on the highway, follow them on motorcycles and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[23408,20283,23406,23410,20948,23409,23407,23411],"class_list":["post-30196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mp","category-states","tag-couples-assaulted","tag-crime-news","tag-guna-highway","tag-highway-gang","tag-madhya-pradesh-crime","tag-police-arrest","tag-robbery-case","tag-safety-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/1884\/2026\/08\/01\/cover5_1785606215.gif\")
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