Agencies
KOLKATA, DECEMBER 16
A 20-year-old married woman has alleged she was abducted and gangraped for about three weeks in Kolkata before she managed to escape.
According to her complaint to the police, the three accused, whom she knew, also filmed their crime and tried to force her into prostitution.
The woman's ordeal has come to light at a time when India is convulsed by the rape of a woman by an Uber cab driver in Delhi.
The homemaker was abducted at gunpoint from Baguiati on the outskirts of the West Bengal capital on November 8. She managed to escape from her captors' clutches on December 1.
The Baguiati police are yet to move in on the three men accused by the woman, who lodged her complaint on December 12.
The FIR names Pervez, Afsar and Prasanta as the accused. The trio worked in a local bar. They are suspected to be on the run.
"I was helpless. They not only raped me continuously but also made videos and took pictures. They threatened me at gunpoint, confined me and even tried to force me to get into prostitution. I refused and was beaten up," said the woman.
Her lawyer Rajesh Choudhury said, "Police has lodged an FIR under sections relating to abduction, rape, taking indecent pictures for blackmailing and others."
Rajeev Kumar, commissioner of Bidhannagar Police, denied knowing about the crime in Baguiati though it is one of the nine police stations under him.
S Nimbalkar, the additional deputy commissioner, was not available for comment. According to woman's statement to police, the accused abducted her when she was in Baguiati for shopping.
They took her to an apartment near Teghoria, which is close by, and forced her to drink a fruit juice laced with sedatives.
She has alleged Pervez and Afsar repeatedly raped her in this apartment, took her pictures and videographed the crime.After a few days, she was taken to a hotel in Baguiati and confined there. The trio including one Prasanta, who runs a band in a hotel, tried to force her into prostitution. She was brought back to the apartment near Teghoria and raped again.
Her husband said, "I was running from pillar to post trying to find her. Her cell phone was switched off. I tried all her relatives but she was not there. I went to the police station a number of times. But the officials there refused to entertain my requests, saying they needed to verify (my claims)."
He added, "I am receiving threats to keep quiet."
The woman managed to escape on December 1 when one of the accused keeping watch, when the other two were away, let his guard down.
Having being stonewalled by the police earlier, the woman and her husband went with lawyer Choudhury to lodge the complaint. The young woman came to Kolkata in 2012 from Punjab in search of a job and got one in a central Kolkata bar. In June 2013 she got married and left the job.
