|
A 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped in a building under construction near Peerless Hospital early on Monday.
All five accused — Sujoy Dakua, Surajit Das, Pritam Naskar, Shantu Haldar and Rajesh Haldar, aged between 18 and 20 years — have been arrested. Pritam is a Class XII student.
The girl, a resident of VIP Bazaar, off the Bypass, had gone to a friend’s house in a colony near the hospital on Sunday evening. “The friend was fasting on the occasion of Shivratri. Around 3am, the two were on their way to a pond, where the friend was to take a dip, when the five youths dragged away the victim,” said Pallab Kanti Ghosh, joint commissioner, crime.
The friend ran back home, barely 100 metres from the spot, and raised an alarm.
“Residents soon started a search for the girl. A few minutes later, they were alerted by screams from the ground floor of a building under construction. When the residents reached the spot, they found the victim trying to get up. The accused had fled,” said an officer of East Jadavpur police station.
The girl uttered two names — Sujoy and Surajit — before she became unconscious.
Sujoy and Surajit, both 18, live in the area. The residents caught one of them from his home and the other from a local club before alerting the police. By the evening, all five were arrested.
“The accused are all aged between 18 and 20 years. One of them, Pritam Naskar, studies in Class XII,” said Sujoy Chanda, deputy commissioner, south suburban division.
The victim, who works in a small eatery near Peerless Hospital, was taken to a government hospital for tests.
The accused have been booked for sexual assault by a gang (Section 376D of the Indian penal Code) — a phrase inserted in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance for what was earlier referred to as “gang rape”.
Sections under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Juvenile Justice Act, too, have been slapped on them.
If proved guilty, the accused will be imprisoned for a term ranging from 20 years to life.
The last time a gang rape was reported in the city, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had dubbed it a sajano ghotona (fabricated incident).
Arrested
A 51-year-old man was arrested on Monday morning on the charge of outraging the modesty of a woman at Mahatma Gandhi Road Metro station. Police said the accused was a teacher at Rajabazar Science College.
|
