West Bengal: Minor tribal girl gang-raped in Birbhum’s Shantiniketan

In yet another untoward incident, a tribal girl was gang-raped in Birbhum’s Shantiniketan area by at least five men while she was returning from a village fair with her boyfriend.

According to a police officer, five men had beaten up the girl’s boyfriend and then took her near the river bank and in turn raped the girl.

“We have alerted all police stations to track those five people. It seems that they were not local,” said the police officer. The officer also claimed that after talking to the victim’s boyfriend, a sketch will be drawn to identify them.

Birbhum district police superintendent Nagendra Nath Tripathi along with other senior police officers had visited the house of the victim and the crime spot.

“The boyfriend of the girl was likely not beaten as we didn’t get any injury marks. We are probing the matter and the culprits will be punished,” said Tripathi. The 15-year-old victim is currently under treatment at a local hospital, the police said.

This incident is yet another setback for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) amidst the hullabaloo caused due to the Hanskhali rape case.

Condemning the act, BJP MP Locket Chatterjee said that the culprits are being backed by the heavyweight TMC leaders.

“The rape has become common in this state and the big TMC leaders are behind the culprits for which such incidents are becoming so common now,” said Locket.

Condemning the brutal act, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) minister Firhad Hakim claimed that the culprits will be punished.

Meanwhile, no arrests have been made so far while an investigation is underway.