A 20-year-old Christian woman was raped and her mother nearly killed by their Hindu relatives in a religiously motivated attack.
“Since we started to attend church six years ago, my father’s elder brother and his family have begun persecuting us in whatever way possible,” the woman, whose name is withheld as a rape victim, told Morning Star News.
She said she was sowing corn in Chhattisgarh state’s Kondagaon District early in the morning of July 15 when her father’s brother, Chinta Naag, who lives nearby, came to the field with his three sons and told her, her 18-year-old sister and their mother to stop cultivating the land.
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The family depends on the land for their living in a village undisclosed for security reasons. Her mother told Naag the land belonged to her deceased husband, that she rightfully owned it and that he could not stop her from working on it, she said. In the ensuing heated argument, she said, the men threatened to kill them.
Naag’s three sons — Mukesh Dugga, Suresh Dugga and Lokesh Dugga — then caught the 20-year-old woman by her hair and began dragging her toward their house, she said. Her mother tried to stop them, but Mukesh Dugga attacked her with a spade (shovel), the victim said.
“One cousin hit my mother on her head with the axe, and the second one hit her with a spade on her chest,” she said. “They hit her repeatedly, till she collapsed in a pool of her own blood.”
The three Hindus dragged the 20-year-old woman into their nearby house as neighbors only watched despite her pleas for help, she said.
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“Nobody came to rescue me, as they dragged me by my hair and my sister stood crying near my mother’s body,” she said.
The men took her inside a room in the house, she said.
“Lokesh stood with the axe, threatening me to stay low and cooperate, otherwise he would kill me,” she said, her voice shaky. “Suresh Dugga caught hold of my neck, pressing my head to the floor, while Mukesh Dugga stripped my leggings and raped me.”
After the rape, when the men became a little distracted, the woman found an opportunity to flee. She headed straight to the nearby jungle, she said.
“My sister also joined me as I fled only with my upper garment,” said the woman, “leaving my mother’s body in the open.”
As the two women fled, the three men screamed at them, telling them not to report the crimes to police, she said, adding that Mukesh Dugga chased them into the jungle with the axe.
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“We just ran with all our strength – we did not look back,” she said. “I don’t know how far we ran, but we stopped only when we reached the Dhanora police station.”
Shortly after 10 a.m., while they were reporting the crimes to police, Mukesh Dugga reached the station, she said.
“He quickly admitted that because we have become Christians, they do not want us to have a share of my father’s property as my father was not a Christian when he died, and we only started to believe after my father’s demise,” she said. “Mukesh admitted to striking my mother but denied that he raped me.”
Police registered a formal complaint under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 — First Information Report No. 13 for “kidnapping,” “illicit sexual intercourse,” “gang rape,” “voluntarily causing hurt,” “criminal intimidation,” “attempt to murder” and “common intention.”
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Police arrested Mukesh Dugga, and because the doctor at a local hospital was unavailable to provide medical tests for a rape victim, police asked the victim to return the next day for examination. Police then went to check on the injured mother, she said.
“We had no idea if our mother was dead or still alive,” she told Morning Star News.
India is ranked number 11 on Open Doors’ list of the top 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian in 2025.
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Last modified: September 26, 2025
