Police files charge sheet against three in Bengal gangrape case

The West Bengal Police has filed a charge sheet against three persons in connection with the brutal gangrape of a woman in Jalpaiguri district, five days after the incident on October 20, a police officer said Friday.

The 35-year-old woman was raped and an iron rod inserted in her private parts brought back memories of the ghastly Nirbhaya rape case of 2012.

Police filed a charge sheet against the three accused Thursday, the police officer said.

The accused have been charge-sheeted under Sections 376D (gangrape), 326 (causing grievous injury) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Under Section 326 the minimum punishment is 10 years and under Section 376 D it is 20 years. The maximum punishment under both these provisions is life term. Under Section 307 the maximum punishment is 10 years.

While we have arrested two persons, one is still absconding, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Jalpaiguri Mitava Maity said.

The incident had taken place near the victim's home at Niranjan Pat locality of Jalpaiguri district.

The prime accused, a relative of the woman, had called her out of her home on the pretext of resolving a land dispute, the SP had earlier said.

He then allegedly raped her and tortured her by inserting an iron rod in her private parts, the SP had said.

Two other persons accompanied the accused, but they did not rape or torture her, the SP had said after he had spoken to the woman, following her operation, at the hospital.

The accused relative and another person who allegedly helped him in the crime were arrested, but the third accused has been absconding.

The tribal woman's husband, a labourer, was away from home during the incident. The woman has three children.

A rickshaw-puller had found her and took her home. She was taken to Dhupguri hospital on October 21 morning and shifted to Jalpaiguri Sadar Hospital.

Doctors operated on her at the Sadar Hospital here on that night and the woman was kept in the intensive care unit.

She was administered blood as she had been bleeding profusely.

"She is in a serious condition but is stable," doctors treating her had said Wednesday.

She was shifted to the critical care unit (CCU) from the ICU on Thursday and doctors at the hospital said that her condition was stable, they said on Friday.