Two Bangladeshi men caught for gang rape shot by cops

Two Bangladeshi men arrested for gang-raping and brutally assaulting a compatriot in Bengaluru were shot by the city police on Friday morning when they allegedly tried to escape early.

Ridoy Babo, 25, and Rakibul Islam Sagar, 23, were taken to a house in Kanakanagar, Ramamurthy Nagar, for mahazar (recreation of the crime scene) when they allegedly picked up stones and hit N B Sakri, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Banaswadi subdivision), and a constable in an attempt to escape.

Ramamurthy Nagar police inspector Melvin Francis and sub-inspector Aravind Kumar R, who were part of the police team, fired at the suspects in self-defence, wounding Babo in the right leg and Sagar in the left. The duo has been admitted to a government hospital for treatment, said S D Sharanappa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East).

Babo and Sagar were among six Bangladeshis arrested over the gang rape. Besides them, police had arrested Mohammed Babu Shaik, 30, Hakil, 23, and a woman named Nasrath on Thursday. Another woman named Kajal was arrested on Friday. The gang rape took place at the Kanakanagar house on May 19 and 20, and was filmed on a mobile phone. The video — three minutes and 45 seconds — went viral in Northeast India and Bangladesh.

The case was initially investigated by police in Assam, Bangladesh and Kerala (where the 22-year-old victim later escaped) as they presumed the incident had happened in their jurisdiction. Police in Bangladesh later tracked down the woman’s family and discovered that she was in Bengaluru.

The woman had been brought to the city three months ago by Shaikh with the promise of a job at a spa, but was pushed into prostitution. Shaikh himself came to Bengaluru just seven months ago and was part of a gang that ran prostitution rackets. Police believe the gang trafficked women from Bangladesh primarily for prostitution disguised as spa jobs in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kerala.

The woman initially worked at spas in Hyderabad and Kozhikode but later developed a financial dispute with Shaikh, who also saw her hand behind the arrest of his wife and sister in Hyderabad in a prostitution case. He was angry that she tried to place some of the trafficked women at a Kozhikode spa where she worked.

Shaikh and other gang members called her to Bengaluru on the pretext of talks. When she came, they gang-raped and assaulted her. A male friend later took her to Kozhikode, where police located her. “We will bring her to Bengaluru and take her statement,” a senior police officer said. The culpability of each suspect will be determined only after the police talk to the woman. All the suspects are believed to be illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.