All the four accused of the Sikidiri gangrape case were arrested on Thursday late evening, confirmed police sources.
It was a day of agitation at Angra where hundreds of people gathered and stalled the house of Preet Ranjan earlier in the day, who is the prime accused along with his three friends in the gang-rape case with his own girlfriend on March 17. The victim, who immolated herself at her residence at Sikidiri in Ranchi, died at RIMS on Wednesday.
Activist from across the party lines also demanded death sentence for Ranjan for committing the heinous crime. Sources revealed that all the four persons —Gauri Shankar Munda, Uttam Mahto, Zyle Kujur and Preet Ranjan have been arrested in this connection
Meanwhile, the people had gathered before the house of Ranjan in the day and shouted slogans demanding immediate arrest of all the culprits and death sentence for Ranjan.
Women wing of different political parties have condemned the brutal act and queued up at the victim’s house and ensured their support to the family members. They also joined the protest staged by the villagers and demanded compensation for the family members.
“Although the loss cannot be compensated to the family members but we demand maximum sentence for the culprits who are involved in the case as well as adequate compensation for the family members,” said BJP Women’s wing President Asha lakra.
The deceased in her dying statement had stated that on March 17 around 5 pm her boyfriend, Preet Ranjan, called her to the Getalsud Dam site to discuss their plans of eloping. “Though, our parents were against the relationship, we wanted to marry,” she had confessed.
The victim had said as she reached the dam site, Preet along with his three friends raped her for over three hours and dumped her at the spot. The accused reportedly was to be getting married in April. Although, the girl informed her parents about the incident next day, but they did not report the case with the police to evade social stigma. The girl was trying to convince the accused to marry her but he outrightly rejected the proposal.
Girl’s father later lodged an FIR against the four people.