Kolkata:
Two more people were arrested on Saturday in the Katwa train loot and rape case in West Bengal. Nayan Seikh and Farid Seikh, accused of raping the woman when she resisted looting, were arrested last night at Chouhatta village in the Labhpur police station area in Birbhum district, they said.
Four people have been arrested in the case so far.
A woman was allegedly gang-raped after she tried to put up a resistance during a robbery attempt in a train near Katwa in the Burdwan district of West Bengal.
Two days after the incident, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had stated the medical records of the woman showed no rape and the entire incident was concocted. The statement attracted criticism from all sides. Ms Banerjee had also said the woman's husband was a CPM sympathiser. The woman has been a widow for the past 11 years.
The incident occurred at around 7:15 pm last Saturday when the train was passing through the Ahmedpur-Katwa section between the Pachandi and Ambalgram stations. A person allegedly approached the guard and asked him to apply brakes, saying a passenger had fallen on the tracks. The guard alerted the driver, who stopped the train. When he got off the train, a gang armed with guns and choppers surrounded him, pointed a gun to his head and snatched his walkie-talkie, mobile phone and other valuables. They then proceeded to loot the passengers on the train, most of who were daily commuters.
The alleged victim, a widow, told the police that when she tried to object, she was dragged out of the train and raped by five men on the railway tracks.
"They took away jewellery from my hands first, then they tried taking my earrings. I resisted so they started beating me. Then they took away my earrings. They also took away Rs. 1000 from me. Then they dragged me out of the train and raped me. Then one of them asked the others to leave me as I was crying," the woman had said.