A gambling addict in India poured acid on his wife for refusing to have her raped by his friends after losing a bet, reports said.
The 36-year-old man had sent his 30-year-old wife of 10 years to be raped by his gambling friends several times since October, the British Independent reported.
“If she ever resisted the sexual exploitation, her husband would beat her and take her hostage,” police officer Rajesh Kumar Jha told the news broadcast.
On Saturday, the man threw acid at his wife, who managed to escape to her parents and warned social activist Deepak Singh, who took her to a police station, the Times of India reported.
The husband was arrested the following evening.
“The victim told police about her ordeal, but claimed her husband physically tortured her because she couldn’t become a mother because of her husband’s alcoholism,” police told the news outlet.
The husband has been charged with multiple charges, including acid attack, gang rape, domestic violence and wrongful incarceration, The Independent reported.
The couple has not been named due to laws protecting the identity of sex crime victims.
The news of the heinous crime comes amid a period of coronavirus blockage that has resulted in a nearly double increase in gender-based violence, the National Commission for Women said.
The committee registered 587 complaints of domestic violence in India between March 23 and April 16, an increase of 45 percent from the previous 25 days between February 27 and March 22.