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Salt Lake gangrape: Three arrested, BJP stages protest

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Press Trust of India Kolkata
Three persons have been arrested in connection with the alleged gangrape of a 24-year-old woman at Salt Lake's Sector-V in a moving vehicle late Sunday night.

Besides, the BJP staged a protest at Salt Lake and questioned as to why it had taken "so much time" for the police to get the information.

Bidhannagar city Police Commissioner Javed Shamim said the three accused were nabbed from a hideout at Haroa in North 24-Parganas district last night following a massive raid.

They have confessed to their crime and would be produced in a court tomorrow. "We will ask for TI parade of the accused," Shamim said, adding two of them were drivers.
 

An another suspect was at large and "we shall arrest him also", he said.

They were identified after the police examined CCTV footage of the crime, which has been preserved as an evidence, a police official said.

The BJP during today held a protest-demonstration at Salt lake against the incident and the role of the police. Its leader Rupa Ganguly wondered why it had taken so much time for the police to get the information.

"If action is not taken, we will again come and stage protest," she warned.

The Left leaders met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and took up the alleged rape incident with her seeking her intervention to check recurrence of the crime which bore close resemblance to the Park Street gangrape of February, 2012.

Left front leader in the Assembly Sujan Chakrabarty told reporters after meeting Banerjee, "We told her that such incidents earned bad name for the state and sought her intervention. She assured us of looking into it," he said.

The incident occurred when the woman, a singer at a bar on VIP road which leads to the airport, had gone to a multiplex at Sector-V at Salt Lake to meet a friend.

She was waiting on the road for transport when an SUV pulled over in front of her and three to four persons forced her into the vehicle. They allegedly assaulted her and then took turns to rape her in the moving vehicle, the police said.

The woman was dumped on the roadside in an unconscious state at Sector-1 in Salt lake. She was rescued by a mobile unit of the police in the early hours yesterday, police officials said.

An FIR was lodged with the Electronic Complex Police Station under Salt Lake Sector-V against four to five unknown persons on the basis of her statement given to the police alleging gangrape.
(REOPENS CAL 3)

The arrested persons have been identified as Arnab De, Subhendu Naskar and Sourav Bera, all drivers of IT sector pool cars, police said.

The first of the three accused was arrested with the help of mobile phone tracking system, while the two others were nabbed following interrogation of the first one.

All of them would be produced before a city court after the interrogation, police said, adding that hunt is on to nab another accused identified as Bappa.

Giving further details, officials of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said a Tata SUMO vehicle, suspected to have been used by the accused, was seized from a nearby place in Kestopur. The vehicle routinely carries IT personnel employed in the Sector-V area.

Some pieces of clothing belonging to the woman as well as those of the three arrested accused have been sent for forensic test. The victim is gradually recovering from the trauma, sources said.

The CPI-M organised a protest-demonstration in front of the Electronic Complex police station demanding "exemplary" punishment to the offenders.

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First Published: May 31 2016 | 6:23 PM IST

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