Four arrested for rape of tribal girl at Shantiniketan

The West Bengal Police have arrested four persons, including two minors, in connection with an alleged gangrape of a minor tribal girl in Shantiniketan of Birbhum district. This comes close on the heels of the alleged gangrape of a minor in Hanskhali of Nadia district, which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is currently investigating.
The accused in the Shantiniketan case were produced in the Bolpur court in Birbhum district. Two of them have been remanded to 10 days of police custody.

"The police have sought a 20-day custody. However, the court gave 10-day custody to the two accused," a lawyer said.

According to the girl's elder sister, five men abducted the minor and raped her in a field while they were returning from a village fair last week. A police complaint had been filed against unknown persons for torturing and raping the minor tribal girl, police sources said.

Initially, the police arrested two persons in connection with the case. Later, the police had made a sketch of the accused based on the victim's statement, sources said. Two more accused were arrested in Birbhum's Padvi village on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, in the Hanskhali case, the victim's mother told the CBI that she was unaware that the state police had named the minor girl's father and cousin brother in the FIR lodged by them. The minor girl, who was allegedly gangraped and died subsequently, was invited to a birthday party by Braja Gopal Gayali, son of a Trinamool panchayat leader.