Kolkata:
A 21-year-old woman was gang-raped in Kolkata allegedly by five men who then dropped her near the Howrah station early this morning. The police have not been able to question her yet as she has been under heavy sedation. One of the alleged culprits has been arrested late this evening who, the police claim, has confessed to the crime.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, meanwhile, perhaps taking a lesson from the Madhyamgram gang-rape where her government was accused of not offering any help, has ordered that the rape survivor be moved from a government hospital to a private clinic for better treatment.
The woman's distraught mother has told the police that her daughter, who worked at a Kolkata mall, had taken a taxi with two colleagues, dropped them at Park Circus and asked to go to Howrah station. The driver refused and dropped her off at Khidderpore. There, a man dragged her at knife-point into a car with four others in it, took her to an area where some trucks were parked and gang-raped her, alleges her mother.
Later, the culprits dropped the woman at Babughat. She somehow reached Howrah station and called relatives who rushed her to the Howrah General Hospital.
"The woman was put under general anesthesia and examined by a gynaecologist who has confirmed rape. Since she was put under anaesthesia, the girl is unable to talk just yet," said Dr Debashish Roy, chief health officer of Howrah district.
The opposition held protests outside the hospital. "The CBI should investigate, the culprits punished and the chief minister should resign," said Umesh Rai of the BJP.
"This is endless and intolerable, what's happening every day," said CPM's Surya Kanta Mishra.