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Calcutta, Aug. 17: A 22-year-old domestic help returning home from work was allegedly dragged to a construction site and raped this evening, her screams for help apparently going unanswered until two schoolboys heard her and alerted the south Calcutta neighbourhood.
By the time residents of Madartala Bustee in the Golf Garden area reached the crime scene, the alleged culprits had fled after locking the door with the woman inside.
“She was almost unconscious when we found her. We immediately took her to MR Bangur Hospital (in Tollygunge),” a relative of the victim said.
The FIR lodged by the woman’s husband, a rickshaw-puller, with Jadavpur police station mentions “rape”. Till late on Friday night, it wasn’t clear whether the police had spoken to the two minors who heard the woman’s screams.
A youth identified as Sharif Ali, a resident of the area, has been arrested.
The victim, who works in several houses at Golf Garden, is said to have been walking past the construction site in Hari Prasad Dutta Lane around 7.30pm when the accused allegedly stopped her.
“She has given a statement saying the alleged culprit was with his friends in a one-room house next to the under-construction building. The accused dragged her in when she was passing by and raped her,” a police officer said.
The woman was slipping in and out of consciousness in hospital, the police said. Officers added that she had bruises on her body suggesting “severe assault” but added that rape could be established only on the basis of a medical report.
“As of now, we can only confirm that the woman was assaulted. Whether that assault was of a sexual nature would be known later,” an officer said.
The medical examination was done at Calcutta National Medical College Hospital, where the victim was taken from MR Bangur Hospital and admitted.
“For all practical purposes, MR Bangur is a referral hospital for South 24-Parganas district. As the case is being handled by the Calcutta police, it is best if the victim undergoes a medical examination at a hospital under Lalbazar’s jurisdiction,” a police officer said.
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