Durgapur Aug. 17: A young, married woman and her mother were stripped, thrashed and paraded last night by her uncle, who apparently wanted to sleep with her.
Bimal Mondal and his three henchmen had attacked Nirmal Mondal’s house in the Purbasthali area of Burdwan on Sunday as well after his daughter turned down his proposal.
Nirmal’s daughter got married eight months ago, but stayed on with the parents as her husband worked in Bangalore.
On Sunday night, fish trader and local tough Bimal, 35, and his men broke into the Mondals’ house, looted everything they could lay their hands on and molested his sleeping niece.
The father and daughter lodged a complaint with the Purbasthali police station the following day. But the police did nothing.
Furious that Nirmal had gone to the police, Bimal and his associates dragged his family out last night, stripped the women and beat them up. The mother and daughter were made to march nude through the village streets, around 180km from Calcutta.
“We were sleeping when the four men stormed into our house and started hurling abuses at us for lodging the complaint. They said they came to teach us a lesson,” Nirmal’s daughter said, cowering in a vain attempt to hide the humiliation.
“They stripped us and beat us with sticks and threatened to gangrape us,” she added.
None of the neighbours dared to venture out when the three were tortured. “We could hear their screams for help but were scared… Bimal is notorious,” said Rama Pal, who came to see the Mondals at Kalna subdivisional hospital today.
“They have bruises all over their body. Their condition is gradually becoming stable,” said hospital superintendent Abhirup Mondal.
A fresh police complaint was lodged today, but no arrests had been made till late tonight.
“We are on the lookout for the culprits. An investigation has begun,” said Rathindra Mohan Mukherjee, the inspector-in-charge.
Asked why the police could not arrest Bimal, Dilip Kirtania and Subhasish Debnath — the fourth man could not be identified — though they were said to be roaming free, Mukherjee said: “According to our knowledge, the accused are all absconding.”