A young woman from Howrah, Bengal, was allegedly gang-raped and brutalised by three youths, including her boyfriend, near Gandhi Ghat in Sakchi, the incident late on Wednesday exposing once more lax night policing in the steel city.
The 25-year-old was found dishevelled and bleeding along Subernarekha river around 6am on Thursday and rushed to MGM Medical College and Hospital, where she had to undergo an emergency surgery. She is stable, doctors have said.
City SP Prabhat Kumar said they were probing “the circumstances under which the woman was found” along the river. “She has accused three persons, including an acquaintance, of gang rape. We are awaiting her medical report for further action since the survivor has had grievous head injuries and is yet to record a formal statement,” the officer said.
Speaking from her hospital bed, the woman told reporters in Bengali that she was a resident of Howrah and had befriended a neighbour, Mohammed Maqsood, 28, a few months ago.
Two days ago, Maqsood — said to be a native of Mango — invited her to the steel city.
“The couple were on a date on Wednesday evening when the youth coaxed her into having sex near Gandhi Ghat. But, to her horror, Maqsood’s two friends soon joined him and together they raped her. When she protested, they battered her with stones and left her bleeding,” a hospital source quoted her as saying.
Too weak to move, she lay along the river all night until residents spotted her and dialled 100. A PCR van reached the spot followed by an ambulance that took her to MGM hospital, barely half a kilometre away. She was first taken to the emergency ward and later shifted to the surgery wing.
Deputy superintendent of MGM hospital Nakul Prasad Chaudhury said the woman was operated on in the gynaecology department. “She has also received head injuries, but her condition is stable. She is recuperating,” he said.
A police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said they had found a phone number of the woman’s family in Howrah and were trying to contact them. The two other accused are around 27 years old and like Maqsood, both unemployed, he added.
Verdict
A district court on Thursday convicted Rajkumar Chauhan, 28, for raping a 16-year-old girl in Sonari in 2012. The youth had befriended the teen on Facebook. The sentence will be pronounced on October 10.
