After a clip of a woman being raped and assaulted was shared widely on social media, five persons, of whom two are women, have been arrested in Bengaluru on Thursday, 27 May. One woman is absconding, while two male accused are being treated for bullet wounds at a hospital.
The victim was traced in Kerala and has been brought back to Bengaluru for her statement to be recorded in front of a magistrate.
The video showed the woman being tortured, with the men inserting a bottle in her private parts. The Bengaluru Police said a case of rape, assault, and other provisions of the law has been registered.
“As per information revealed so far, the victim was running a sex workers network along with the accused. She had allegedly embezzled money from the accused and the rape was a retaliation.”Bangalore police official said in a statement.
Ascertaining Identity of Victim Took a Few Days
Initially, the video sparked outrage in the northeast. Responding to the anger in Assam, the police had put images from the video and said, “Anyone with information regarding this crime or the criminals may please contact us. They will be rewarded handsomely.”
They also said, “Though it is not clear where this incident took place and it may not be from Assam, we are reaching out to proactively locate the culprits.”
There were also others who thought the case was related to the Jodhpur suicide case, but Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, IPS officer Robin Hibu, Meghalaya MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh, and the Assam Police came out to say on Thursday that that was not the case.
Eventually, the victim was identified as a Bangladeshi citizen by the police in Bengaluru and Dhaka. “Based on the contents of the video and preliminary investigation, a case of rape and assault has been registered against six persons, including two women at @ramamurthyngrps,” the Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant tweeted on late Thursday.
Even the accused have been identified as Bangladeshi. One of the six accused, a female, is absconding. Two other male accused have been hospitalised after the police fired at them.
On Friday morning, 28 May, the police claimed that the accused tried to escape when they were being taken to the crime scene, and they bullets were fired at them, DCP East Sharanappa SD told TNM.
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