Three arrested in Salt Lake gangrape case

Three persons were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the sensational gangrape of a young woman in a moving car in the city's posh satellite township Salt Lake, police said.

 

The three - all drivers by profession - were picked up from Haroa in North 24 Parganas district, said Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Javed Shamim.

 

The woman, in her twenties, was sexually assaulted early on Monday allegedly by four youths - the manner of the crime acting as a chilling reminder of the Park street gangrape case where an Anglo-Indian woman was the victim in 2012.

 

Admitted in a state-run hospital, she was now stable. A medical test has confirmed gangrape, said a police source.

 

"One of the culprits is still absconding. We carried out raids, but couldn't get him. Hopefully, we'll be able to arrest him soon," said Shamim.

 

He said the three youths - Suvendu Nag, Sourav Dey and Arnab Bera - have been brought to Bidhannagar for interrogation.

 

The commissioner claimed that police have been able to establish the linkage of the trio with the crime.

 

"In the next stage, we will ask for the test identification (TI) parade of the accused."

 

While Nag was a resident of Chowbaga in the city's eastern fringes, the other two were from Beliaghata in northeast Kolkata.

 

Police zeroed in on the three youths on the basis of the footage from a CCTV close to the scene of the crime and by tracking their mobile phones.

 

The vehicle in which the crime was done has also been impounded and forensic test results would be available on Wednesday. It was taken from a car rental agency.

 

The victim had come to the city some time back and was staying at Baguiati in northeast Kolkata. She was working in a night club.

 

"That day she did not go to her workplace, and instead spent time at a city hotel in south Kolkata. From there, she came to Salt Lake wishing to visit a coffee joint around midnight," the source said.

 

However, she could not find her way and got confused once she reached the sector V area of Salt Lake.

 

"It was then that she saw Bera and asked her about the direction. Bera told him that he would have to ask his friends. When three of his friends came in the vehicle, the girl boarded the car," said the source.

 

The woman claimed the three offered her a lift, forced her inside the car, and sped off the moment she was on board.

 

However, a police officer said till now there was no conclusive proof that she was forcibly dragged inside the car.

 

The victim alleged all the four youths then drove her near a water sports park and raped her one by one in the running vehicle before bumping her off on to the street near Baishakhi housing complex. However, the police source said: "Till now we cannot say for certain whether she was thrown out of the car or managed to get out on her own."

 

The passengers travelling in a vehicle behind the said car saw her and, along with a police patrol car, took her to a hospital.

 

The police source said there was also confusion over whether the victim and the accused were intoxicated. - IANS