3 arrested for rape of teenage girl in Assam

The police on Sunday arrested three teenagers for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district.

The police on Sunday arrested three teenagers for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district.

A fourth accused is absconding.

The incident, police said, happened minutes after the girl and a youth alighted from an auto-rickshaw at Banipur near Dibrugarh town around 10pm on Saturday. The four boys first thrashed the youth and then took turns to rape her.

“We picked up the girl and the youth lying near the highway around 11pm, and took them to a hospital.

The girl later lodged an FIR naming the four teenagers, saying they had thrown her companion in a roadside pond before raping her,” additional superintendent of police Hiranya Barman said.

The accused, however, denied committing rape. “They said they had beaten up the youth on finding him in a compromising position with the girl. We are awaiting the medical report,” Barman said.

Several organisations including the All Assam Students’ Union condemned the incident and demand strict action against the accused.

Assam has seen a spurt in rape cases in recent years. The police recorded 1,960 cases last year, up from the earlier annual average of 1,707. The figure this year has crossed 1,200 so far.