Kalimpong: 3 Bhutanese monks held for raping minor

Three Bhutanese Buddhist monks and a driver allegedly gangraped a minor girl after the driver forced her into his car and made her drink fruit juice laced with drugs in Kalimpong town in Darjeeling district on Wednesday evening, Amitava Banerjee reports.

Three Bhutanese Buddhist monks and a driver allegedly gangraped a minor girl after the driver forced her into his car and made her drink fruit juice laced with drugs in Kalimpong town in Darjeeling district on Wednesday evening.

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The victim was on her way to buy medicines for her ailing elder sister when she was approached by the driver, Karan Roka, who offered to take her for a ride. When she refused, Roka forced her into the car in which the monks were seated.

The girl, currently being treated for trauma in a hospital in Kalimpong, said in her statement to the police that she was taken to a desolate spot near Durpin monastery and gangraped by four men and then dumped at the place from where she was abducted.

Some people saw her crying by the roadside and took her home, after which her parents lodged a complaint with the police.

“A medical examination has been conducted. It corroborates her statement that she was raped,” Darjeeling superintendent of police Kunal Agarwal said on Saturday.

The monks, Samten Standup, 21, Phurba Dorjee, 20, and Dawa Dukpa, 20, had arrived from Bhutan a month ago and were staying at the Thongsey monastery in Kalimpong, the police said. The monks and the driver have been arrested.