Crime

The 'gang rape' victim's lover boy helping the police so long is now pushed back to police custody in remand for a week, as the investigating cops realised his 'role' was fishy, especially in the wake of the final statement made by his girlfriend before the Magistrate yesterday afternoon.

 

Wasif Ali of Kaliachak, Malda - the boyfriend of the Odhisa girl was granted seven days police remand by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court here this afternoon.

 

He, along with the other five arrested in the controversial 'gang rape' case, will further be produced before the Court with five others on 22 October.

 

It's in no way was a case of physical gang rape, instead, the offence was committed by a single youth, the Commissioner of Asansol Durgapur Police had made it crystal clear on Tuesday evening, which however had brought a major twist to the second year medical student's rape incident that rocked the state since four consecutive days. 

 

The twist was more dramatic when the investigating officials took Wasif to custody late Tuesday evening.

 

"The offence was committed by a single person, and as the medico-legal examination suggests, no involvement of any other could be established as yet," the CP, Sunil Chowdhury stated. The police also had seized the 'boyfriend's' clothing. 

 

Country's present legal framework however suggests, even if only one person commits the sexual assault, it can still be prosecuted as gang rape if others were present and acted with a "common intention" to commit the crime. So, Wasif, present at the scene, was accused of gang rape, accordingly.

 

The police has slapped charges of gang rape and assembly for common intentions, snatching [under Section 70 (1), 3(5) & 308 (2), 317 (2) of the BNS against Wasif like the other five. The girl's snatched cellphone was recovered from the possession of Firdos Sheikh - one of the accused.

 

After Wasif was produced before the ACJM Court this afternoon, the father of the victim girl camping at the medical college since Saturday morning said: "I am quite happy with this and I beg a pardon, if I have passed any adverse comments against Bengal or the Chief Minister of Bengal." He had demanded for CBI investigations yesterday morning, incidentally. The Odhisa Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi already entered the scene with his office keeping 'constant' liaison with the victim's father and Majhi promising a berth for the girl student at the Bhuvaneswar Medical College in state quota, which, however added indecent political fuel to the controversy. 

 

The victim girl’s father - a solvent businessman himself runs a science college in Jaleshwar, besides his medicine distributorship and a retail outlet there. He, as he claimed, maintains 'good enough' rapport' with the ruling BJP leaders in Odhisa and with some of the party men in Bengal as well. For five days, he incidentally was lodged at the house of Parijat Ganguly  - a BJP Yuva Morcha leader in Durgapur, surprisingly. Although he had ample opportunities to stay at the guesthouse of his daughter's college or in either of the hotels. Instead, he chose to stay back at Ganguly's house - why, remained unanswered. Moreover, he went to BJP's Dharna Manch at City Centre  - about 9 km away from his daughter's college - why, he maintained indifferent.

 

Wasif - son of a former Panchayat Pradhan from the Congress party hails from Kaliachak locality in Malda. His father currently is a domestic utensil vendor and had procured the fund for his son's medical education by selling his land property, family sources said.

 

The police had detained Wasif Ali - the boyfriend of the girl hailing from Jaleshwar, Odhisa barely seven hours of the incident. Wasif - the victim's classmate had accompanied the girl to peri-urban forest about a km from the campus of the IQ City Medical College after 9 pm on Friday. Wasif also had taken the bleeding 23 year old girl to the Hospital's emergency ward at 9:50 pm.

 

The police entered the scene at 3 am on the wee hours of Saturday. The cops finally arrested the boyfriend of the gang rape victim medical student late yesterday evening. This was the sixth arrest in the case. The victim's father in his complaint though had mentioned about five culprits without naming anyone, but had repeatedly expressed his suspicion about Wasif. The Commissioner of Police, Asansol Durgapur Police, Sunil Chowdhury stated yesterday evening: "The youth was quizzed frequently several times and his statements were kept under scanner."

 

The victim though initially denied to bring charges against her boyfriend from the day one, however altered her versions yesterday when the 3rd Judicial Magistrate of Durgapur Court Debkalpa Sarkar recorded her statements under Section 183 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita yesterday afternoon, which prompted the police to initiate legal charges against Wasif.