5 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants held in Bengaluru for rape, assault of woman

They had brought the victim to India for human trafficking

A 22-year-old Bangladeshi woman was brutally gang-raped by a group of four in Bengaluru, allegedly at the behest of another Bangladeshi woman. Acting on a tip-off by the Bangladesh police, Bengaluru’s East Division police caught five people, including a woman, in this connection.

The police identified the suspects as Sagar (23), Mohammed Babu Sahik (30), Ridoy Babo (25) -- residents of Bengaluru, and Hakil (23), a resident of Hyderabad, and a woman. All are Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in Bengaluru. “The victim was staying with the suspects in a rented house in Maragondanahalli village in Ramamurthy Nagar limits of East Bengaluru. They had brought her from Bangladesh promising a decent job. However, she was forced into flesh trade,” said a police official.

When the woman refused to obey them, the gang stripped her and abused her physically. “Investigation revealed that a woman staying with them reportedly aided the accused in stripping and abusing the victim. The accused filmed the act and circulated it on social media,” the officer said.

The three-minute, 45-second video had gone viral in Assam and Bangladesh. “Initially, the Bangladeshi police, Assam and Kerala police began probing the case assuming that the incident may have happened in their jurisdiction. The Bangladeshi police traced the family and discovered that the victim was staying in Bengaluru and alerted us,” the officer said.

Acting on the tip-off, a Bengaluru police team raided the house and arrested all the suspects. The victim is yet to be traced. The Bengaluru police, in an official statement on Thursday night said, “On the basis of the contents in the video clip and facts disclosed during the preliminary investigation, a case of rape, assault and under other relevant provisions of the law, has been registered against the accused at Ramamurthy Nagar police station.”

The police also said that the victim is currently said to be in a neighbouring state and a team has been dispatched to trace her. “All of them are part of the same group and the suspects brutally assaulted the victim over financial differences. The victim is also said to be a Bangladeshi and was brought to India for human trafficking,” the statement said.