Tribal girl gang-raped in Santiniketan

Bolpur-Santiniketan in Birbhum district of West Bengal, which houses the iconic Visva-Bharati University founded by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, is on the boil following the gang rape of a tribal girl late on Thursday evening.

The incident happened when the victim went to a local fairground with her boyfriend. He later informed the police that suddenly five persons came to the spot, attacked and injured him and abducted the girl. They took the victim to a nearby river bed and raped her. The victim is currently under treatment at a local hospital.

Senior police officials including the Birbhum district police superintendent, Nagendra Nath Tripathi, visited the house of the victim on Friday morning. Tripathi said police artists are trying to make sketches of the accused persons based on the description given by the victim’s friend.

“It is suspected that the accused are not local people and they came from outside. All police stations have been alerted and we are tracking all possible avenues to catch the culprits,” Tripathi said.

The incident has come as an immense embarrassment for the Mamata Banerjee government which is already facing criticism for the recent rape of a minor girl, who died later at Hanskhali in Nadia district of West Bengal. The chief minister could not avoid the heat after she gave a love-angle twist to the case. Legal experts, opposition politicians and civil society members criticized her comments, saying that as per the law even consensual sex with a minor is considered as rape and hence a crime.