Kolkata:
A man has been arrested in Kolkata in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a mentally-challenged woman.
The police say, early this morning, in the Chitpur area in the city's northern outskirts, some people noticed three or four men standing near a small truck whose engine was running and found it suspicious. Suddenly, a woman climbed out of the back of the truck in a disheveled state.
The driver of the truck and the men standing around it allegedly ran away when the locals raised an alarm. The woman was taken to the police station, and a complaint was filed, stating that "something bad" may have happened to her.
Based on the locals' accounts, the police filed a case of gang-rape and arrested the driver. A medical test has not been conducted, according to Pallab Kanti Ghosh, joint commissioner (crime) of Kolkata Police, as the woman has not been able to give her consent. The police say they will get a court order to conduct a medical examination to confirm rape.
West Bengal has been struggling with incidents of rape in the past few months. Earlier this month, two women of the same family were allegedly gang-raped over political rivalry in Howrah and on January 21, a tribal woman was allegedly gang-raped in Birbhum on the orders of a village council as punishment for planning to marry a non-tribal man.