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Two minors among 4 arrested for teen’s gang rape in Bengal’s Birbhum
The girl was allegedly raped in the Santiniketan police station area when she was sitting on the banks of the Kopai river with a local youth, who was described by the police as her boyfriend. He told the police that some youths pounced on them and dragged the girl to a desolate spot where they raped her.
Four people, including two minor boys, were arrested in Bengal’s Birbhum district between Sunday night and Monday morning in connection with the alleged gang rape of a 15-year-old on the night of April 14, police said.
The accused and the survivor all belong to a local tribal community.
The minor boys held by police are around 14 years old.
The accused youths, Lakhsmiram Soren and Sunil Soren, were nabbed from the Parui police station area late on Sunday night and the minors were found in a village a few hours later, a district police officer said seeking anonymity.
The girl was allegedly raped in the Santiniketan police station area when she was sitting on the banks of the Kopai river with a local youth, who was described by the police as her boyfriend. He told the police that some youths pounced on them and dragged the girl to a desolate spot where they raped her. The youth also alleged that he was beaten up.
“A local court on Monday remanded the two youths in police custody for 10 days. The minor boys were sent to a special home. It is being investigated whether all four took part in the alleged crime,” Nagendra Nath Tripathi, superintendent of Birbhum district police, told HT.
The survivor’s statement was recorded by a magistrate last week.
The case was filed by the police under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Women, Leena Gangopadhyay, met the girl on Sunday and also talked to her family and the police.
Tripathi said artists from the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) drew sketches of the accused based on the descriptions given by the victim.
The victim was admitted to a state-run hospital in Bolpur town after the incident. She returned home on Sunday.
Tripathi, who is heading the investigation, said the only lead he initially got from the survivor and her friend was that the suspects were all conversing in Santhali. They could not describe the attackers.
The youth told the police that he ran to a local village to seek help. The villagers found the girl and took her to hospital.
Bengal is witnessing agitations since early April when a 14-year-old girl died after being raped by a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader’s son and his friends at Hanskhali in Nadia district.
In Nadia, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the gang rape following an order of the Calcutta high court. The victim, a class 9 student, was raped on the night of April 4 and she died the next morning, allegedly due to excessive bleeding.
The legal cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday filed a petition at the Calcutta high court seeking CBI probe into four recent alleged rapes, including the one in Birbhum. The petition is likely to be heard later this week, lawyers said.
