Youths arrested in Gaighata, Bengal for drunkenness and rape of minors

Calcutta, November 14 (IANS): Gaighata police in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district arrested a youth on Thursday morning for allegedly raping a minor girl after intoxicating her.

State police sources said that though the rape took place on the night of November 10, the victim’s parents lodged a formal complaint at the Gaighata police station on Wednesday evening following which the accused youth was arrested.

According to the complaint registered with the police, the victim went to his residence to attend his birthday party at the invitation of the suspect. There, the suspect allegedly mixed alcohol with soft drinks that she consumed.

Because she was drunk, the suspect allegedly raped her.

The parents also complained that when she regained her senses, the suspect threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone about the matter. Because the victim was in shock, the victim initially did not tell her parents about the matter.

She finally told the matter to her parents on Wednesday evening, who immediately went to the police station and filed a complaint. Following that complaint, Gaighata police arrested the suspect early Thursday morning.

A case has been registered under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act. The suspected youth will be produced in court on Thursday afternoon and the public prosecutor will request his police custody.

This is the second time in the last eleven days that a report of rape of a minor girl has surfaced in Gaighata. On November 3, another youth in Gaighata, who was notorious in the locality for teasing and was a relative of a local Trinamool Congress leader, was arrested on charges of kidnapping and raping a minor girl.

The state of West Bengal has been in the news for the past three months due to repeated reports of rape and murder, many of the victims being minors.

The most high-profile tragedy in this regard was the gruesome rape and murder of a junior doctor of Calcutta’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital inside the hospital premises in August this year.