Kolkata: Charge sheet filed in Mominpore rape case

KOLKATA: A week after five persons were arrested in connection to the gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl, cops have filed the charge sheet in the case. The girl was allegedly gang-raped inside a Mominpore flat.
Top cops had earlier mentioned that they wanted to file the charge sheet within a week to send across a strong message. "Though certain POCSO cases have seen chargesheets in quicker time, this is one of the rare cases where we have concluded investigation in a grave offence like gang rape," said an officer.
"The chargesheet was submitted against the five accused persons in Ekbalpore police station case, which took place on February 7. The FIR originally had sections under IPC Sections 342/34, 376D IPC (gang-rape) with 6/17 POCSO Act. But after completing the investigation within seven days from the date of indexing of the case, the charge-sheet was submitted under IPC sections 342, 366A, 506, 376D/34 of IPC and Sec 6 of POCSO Act," said joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.
"Investigation involved arrest of all accused persons, medical examination of victim, the accused persons, examination of the crime scene by FSL, sending exhibits to FSL, recording statement of victim under section 164 of CrPC, seizure of important CCTV footage and finally sending of CCTV footage to CFSL after obtaining order of court. All accused are presently in judicial custody," added the officer.
The cops have seized the clothes, which the accused - Amarjeet Chowpal alias Rahul (21), Manoj Sharma (25), Rittik Ram (19), Bikash Mallick (24) and house owner Sanjoy Mirdha (28) - wore that night and sent them for forensic tests.
Cops have also seized the two bikes, one of which was used to take the victim, a Class-VII student, to the crime spot by two of the accused. All five accused have been sent to judicial custody till February 24.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)