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Assam police arrest 5 men for gangraping homeless woman with mental illness
Police said the woman was sent to Silchar Medical College and Hospital with severe injuries, and she is undergoing treatment
The Assam police on Wednesday arrested five men for allegedly thrashing and gangraping a homeless woman with mental illness who used to live on the streets in Karimganj district during the wee hours on Sunday, officials said.
The woman was sent to Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) with severe injuries, and she is undergoing treatment, they added.
Police said the alleged incident happened at Kayasthagram Bazar at around 2am on Sunday but they received a complaint only on Tuesday night.
The superintendent of police of Karimganj district, Partha Pratim Das, said that the Kayasthagram Bazar Committee on July 2 lodged a First Information Report (FIR) at a local police station and based on that a case was registered.
He said that the complainants named a few accused in the FIR and during investigation a few more names were added. “A total of five persons have been arrested in this case as of now and further investigation is going on,” he added.
According to the locals, the homeless lady used to live on the streets near Kayasthagram, and they knew that she was suffering from some mental illness. They said that she was gang-raped by 3-4 individuals after being dragged to the railway station.
According to them, after the incident, a meeting was held at Kayasthagram Bazar and the matter was “solved locally.” However, some organisations including Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) opposed this and informed police about the entire incident.
The VHP and some other organisations also staged a protest in Kayasthagram on Tuesday against the alleged incident and demanded capital punishment for the accused.
Sujoy Shyam from VHP said that this was a disturbing incident and some people tried to hide it. “After the locals protested against it, the police arrested the accused. We demand capital punishment for them,” he said.
The SP said that after receiving the complaint, police obtained CCTV footage from some shops in the market and with those videos, it was confirmed that the lady was dragged and tortured.
The accused were identified by police as Fokor Uddin, Shamim Khan, Riyaaz Uddin, Abdul Mostak and Pranesh Nath. All of them are local residents and connected to Kayasthagram Bazar. Pranesh Nath is a security guard of a complex in the market.
They have been arrested under several sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC). They’ll be produced before the court and further investigation is going on, said a police official.
“Some local NGOs are supporting us in the medical treatment of the woman and once she gets released from the hospital, she’ll be sent to a shelter home,” the official said.
