In yet another hair-raising incident of attempted gangrape, a Howrah girl rescued herself from her tormentors by leaping off to her safety from the first floor of at two-storied house where she was confined.
The incident took place on Sunday evening when one of the accused reportedly a friend of the victim took her to a house at neighbouring liluah where she was served with a potion laced with tranquillisers and threatened with knives for sexual favours.
“I accompanied Nonta unsuspectingly to a house at his request just because he was a friend. But there I encountered three more persons who were introduced to me as his friends,” the victim said.
“Initially they conducted themselves normally and asked me to marry Nonta. They even brought vermillion with them. But when I refused they turned hostile and started asking me for sexual favours,” the girl with stitches all around her forehead alleged adding the room was locked from inside and the foursome “were threatening me with knives repeatedly telling me that they already had two murder cases against them.”
Even as the men drank and “quarreled among themselves on who would rape the girl first she got a chance to slip out of the balcony from where she leapt at once severely injuring her,” a police officer said adding three persons including the prime accused had been arrested.
“I was so terrified that I did not think twice before leaping off the railing. There was death both ways. But if I leapt I still had a remote chance of survival and so I took the step,” the victim said demanding “strictest punishment for the accused.
The family was living under terror said the victim’s father said. “I have another daughter and two sons. Who will ensure their safety from these murderersIJ” her father wondered.
Bengal of late had seen a steep rise in rape cases. with heinous crimes like Kamduni gang rape case taking place at Barasat where a college girl was raped and then murdered with her legs being torn apart by
the criminals. The Park Street rape case also.