Kolkata: Mentally challenged woman raped by acquaintance

KOLKATA: A 43-year-old mentally challenged woman returning home from a kirtan at Rajarhat in north 24 parganas was allegedly raped by an acquaintance from a neighbouring village, who had offered to escort her safely to her home from the akhara early on Friday.



The woman had returned home around 2am but didn’t confine anything to her family members till she began feeling uneasy on Friday morning and had started vomiting blood. On being questioned by her family members, she told her sister about the assault, who immediately took her to the police station and registered a complaint. The woman could name her tormentor and he was subsequently arrested from his home on Friday.

Identified as Kanai Naskar (46), the tormentor was produced before a district court and was remanded to police custody.

The incident happened at Panchanandatala near Vedic Village in Rajarhat. Police said, the woman, a resident of Sikharpur village had gone to attend a kirtan at Arbelia, around a km from her home. “She was returning home alone a little after midnight when the accused man, whom the victim knew from before. The man had offered to walk her towards her home as it had been very late. However when they reached a desolate place near Panchanandatala, the man forcibly took her behind a bush and raped her,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate.

After the assault, the man had allegedly threatened the woman to not to tell about the incident to anyone and fled back to his own home.

Probing into the complaint, police reached his house on Friday and learning that he was at a local vegetable market, rushed there, and picked him up from the market. Police said, Naskar sells vegetables at the local market and had gone to attend the kirtan with a group of friends on Thursday night.