Guwahati, Nov. 26: Police today unmasked the three youths who stripped an Adivasi woman during the mayhem in Guwahati on Saturday and Assam hung its head in shame as TV channels flashed footage of the naked victim running through a street with cellphone cameras clicking in her wake.
Prasenjit Chakravarty, Sandip Chakdar and Ratul Barman were identified and arrested on the basis of video footage and eyewitness accounts of them disrobing the woman, one of the 300-odd people who were the targets of the mob attack that day.
“The three accused pounced on her like a pack of dogs and started stripping her. All her pleas fell on deaf ears till they stripped her naked. Only then did they let her go,” a police official said, quoting witnesses.
She ran past a group of leering men till somebody gave her a piece of clothing.
Ananya Baruah, a housewife from Beltola, said she stood dumbfounded on the balcony of her second-floor apartment as the woman scampered down the street. “She was running like mad and there were some people who were clicking pictures with their cellphones. It was one of the worst crimes any civilised society could have committed. I felt so helpless just watching. The girl disappeared into one of the bylanes.”
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi broke the news about the arrests in Jorhat this morning and offered 1 lakh in compensation to the woman. He also announced a judicial inquiry into the arson by activists of the All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam and the violent mob retaliation that followed with almost no intervention by the police.
One person died and over 300 were injured in the mayhem, which began with an allegedly illegal assembly of Adivasis demanding Scheduled Tribe status.
Of the three youths arrested for the stripping incident, the youngest is barely 18. Ratul is a waiter at Mahalaxmi Hotel in Beltola, the epicentre of the mob violence. He migrated to the city from Barama in Baksa district. The main accused is Prasenjit, 28. He owns a restaurant, Dainty Fast Food, in the same locality. The third, 20-year-old Sandip, is a migrant from Ambagan in Nagaon district and owns a paan shop near the hotel where Ratul works.
The trio have been booked under Sections 354, 325, 307, 376, 511, 153 (A), 34 of the IPC, the charges being outraging the modesty of a woman and attempt to murder. The Assam State Commission for Women will file a suo moto case on the same incident.
The judicial probe announced by the chief minister is in addition to the inquiry by additional chief secretary P.P Verma.
Gogoi said he decided on a judicial probe by a retired judge of Gauhati High Court — Justice (retd) R.K Manisena Singh — to silence allegations about the Congress and its student wing, the National Students’ Union of India, instigating the mob frenzy. “Nobody will be spared, if found guilty.”
The government yesterday transferred the officer-in-charge of Basistha police station, Indrajit Chakraborty, and suspended a sub-inspector of Dispur police station, S. Kakoti, for not taking appropriate action when the mob was venting its ire on the Adivasi rallyists.
On the dispute over the toll in the clash, the chief minister said the government had already requested the Adivasi students’ union to provide a list of those who participated in the rally.
Continuing the attempt to placate the community, the Congress government announced a series of development schemes and ex gratia of Rs 3 lakh to the family of the person who died in the mob attack. Minister and government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sarma said the government would petition Delhi to grant ST status to the Adivasis and five other communities.
A cabinet committee will be constituted to finalise the modalities for creating separate development councils for the Adivasi, Moran and Muttock communities.
