WB survivor’s classmate held for gang-rape, extortion

Durgapur: Police slapped gang-rape, snatching and extortion charges Wednesday on the arrested classmate of the second-year MBBS student who was sexually assaulted outside her campus in Bengal’s Durgapur last Friday night.The suspect, the sixth to be arrested in the case, was remanded in police custody for a week after going unrepresented in court as no lawyer was willing to take up his case.Assistant public prosecutor Siddhartha Basu said that besides the survivor’s recorded statement, there was enough evidence to prima facie draw up charges against the arrested classmate with whom the 23-year-old woman from Odisha had stepped out of their campus.

“We sought a 10-day police remand, but the court restricted it to seven days,” he told TOI.

Investigators declined to disclose the nature of the evidence that led to the woman’s classmate being arrested. The woman’s father mentioned in his Oct 11 complaint that the perpetrators of the alleged gang-rape were known to the student accompanying her.A police officer said investigators were still to find evidence linking the arrested youth to the other five suspects.

“They will be questioned in custody together. The MBBS student will also be taken for a medical examination,” he said.The suspect, whose name is being withheld to protect the survivor’s identity, was brought in for interrogation on Oct 11, within hours of an FIR being filed at 3.38am that day. He was detained until his arrest on Tuesday. The state will arrange legal counsel for him at the next hearing, sources said.All six men arrested in the case are to be produced in court together on Oct 22.Based on the survivor’s statement, she and her classmate stepped out of campus together around 8pm on Oct 10. He allegedly molested her along the way. Three other suspects on a motorbike allegedly stalked her and dragged her into a forested area, where one of them allegedly raped her. Two other men joined them after a while.