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A minor girl was allegedly gang-raped by 5 men in the city of Kolkata on 18th October 2022. The accused have been arrested, while investigation continues.
Trigger warning: Kidnapping, Alcohol Abuse and Gang rape of minor.
A fourteen-year-old minor girl was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped by five men in the late hours of Tuesday evening. The incident is reported to have occurred in Sodepur, Kolkata. The accused, out of which three were her friends, have been arrested.
As reported by a media outlet, at around 6.30pm, the girl was running an errand with a female acquaintance. They were having a cup of tea in a park in the Haridevpur area, when three out of the five accused came up and started speaking to the girl.
After the acquaintance was assured that they were her neighbourhood friends, she left the minor with them.
The accused — Abhishek Singh, Sanjay Patra, Saheb Adhikary, and Rahul Singh — are all aged between 19 and 22 years old, except the mastermind Arup Sengupta who is 42 years old. According to the same report, he is said to be the one who planned the crime.
At around 8.30pm, the men incited the girl to accompany them to a flat in Sodepur, where she was forced to consume alcohol, and then raped. Being unable to wake up from her state of forced inebriation, she was left back in the flat.
She returned home at around 11.30pm in the night, and disclosed to her elder sister the details of the evening.
It was her elder sister who registered a complaint in the Haridevpur station, on the basis of which the police arrested the five men.
The same report informs that an investigation is being led into if the teenager had been drugged beforehand.
As of now, the five men has been booked under the severe sections under the Indian Penal Code, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). These include 366 (kidnapping or abduction), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 376DA (Gangrape of minor).
After the FIR was lodged, the arrests were made within 2.50pm on Wednesday. The victim’s statement in front of the magistrate is to be recorded soon.
The Times of India report also informs us that Arup Sengupta, or otherwise known as Putu in his locality, has been identified as a promoter by profession with a few criminal records to his name. He was aiming for a career in politics. The five men would be produced in court.
With the growing amount of crimes against the female gender, how many such cases are to take place before stronger measures are taken to ensure their safety? For how long are the democratic administrators going to keep ignoring such incidents?
Such prompt actions shown by the Haridevpur Police force are very meagre in comparison to the rest of the cases. Most often than not, the police refuse to file cases for rape/gang-rape, instead engaging in severe victim-blaming or slut-shaming.
It is never going to help unless law-enforcers are strict with the enforcement of the law, and hold the convicted accountable for their crimes.
Image source: Alexas_Foto, from Pixabay, free and edited on CanvaPro
The author is a Gen-Z kid who resorts to writing to vent out about the problematic ways of the world. Having majored in Theatre, English, and Psychology, I take a guilty pleasure in complex read more...
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