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In an incident reminiscent of the 2012 Park Street rape, a minor girl was raped by three persons in a moving taxi on Park Street in the early hours of Monday.
Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department) Pallab Kanti Ghosh said the incident occurred between 11 pm on Sunday and 4 am on Monday.
“The 13-year-old girl was picked up from the street and raped in a moving taxi. Her mother lodged a written complaint based on which we are taking action,” he said. The girl, under medical attention at present, told the police that Anwar, a youth who works at an eatery on Royd Street near Park Street, had picked her up.
According to the police, the girl lives in a shack on a footpath at Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Road off Park Street along with her mother.
Like every other night, she was walking back to a night shelter from her elder sister’s shack on the nearby Collins Lane. “It was around this time that she met Anwar. It’s is still unclear whether it was pre-planned or Anwar chanced upon the idea,” an official said.
Anwar lured her with an offer to buy ice-cream and got her into the taxi, where three persons, including the driver, raped her. “The next morning they dropped her at the crossing of Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Road and Park Street, threatening her of dire consequences if she opened her mouth. She was in great pain and broke down before her mother,” a police officer said.
Though the police arrested Anwar on Monday, they are yet to trace the driver and another person. “The manhunt is proving difficult because the girl could not describe the other two or remember the car’s registration number. We hope to get vital clues from Anwar,” a senior police official said.
Police red-faced
The incident, right before the Christmas-New Year festive season, has left the Kolkata Police red-faced since additional forces were deployed for maintenance of law and order on Park Street. The street was dotted with checkpoints where every vehicle was being checked. Senior officials are concerned that despite these measures, the taxi was not stopped at any of the check points.
In a separate incident, a first-year student of Philosophy at Presidency University complained that she was sexually harassed by a third-year senior.