KOLKATA: A 17-year-old girl -- out on an evening walk with a boy of her age at an ill lit and less crowded area in New Town -- was allegedly stalked by four youths and was gang raped at a vacant land by two of them while two others restrained and assaulted the boy.
The incident happened around 9.30pm at a vacant land, around 1 km behind Eco Park. Cops on evening patrol were alerted by the muffled cries of the woman around 10.30pm when they found the girl battered and bruised in the bushes and shortly arrested one of the four tormentors who was still hanging around in the nearby area.
“Upon questioning, the girl said how the men beat up his friend and took turns to rape her behind tall grasses. The youth who was apprehended from the spot gave away the whereabouts of the other three. Multiple teams of officers went around in their search and managed to arrest all of them before midnight from three different places,” said a senior officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate.
Police said, the men – all in their mid-20s – knew the girl and stalked her when she set out with the friend towards the desolate area in New Town from her home, around two kilometres from the incident spot. Cops booked four of them under IPC sections 376D (gang rape), 342 (wrongful confinement) and section 6 of protection of children from sexual offences (POCSO) act dealing with aggravated penetrative sexual assault.
Cops said the girl who is currently under treatment, has preliminarily identified the accused men and have agreed to attend the test identification parade to identify her tormentors before a magistrate.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)