In Assam, college students gang-rape teenager

DIBRUGARH: A 16-year-old Adivasi girl was gang-raped by four college students near the Dibrugarh railway station on the outskirts of the town late on Saturday night.
Dibrugarh additional SP Hiranya Kumar Barman said three accused—Karun Gogoi, Pranjit Dutta and Kalyan Dutta—have been arrested while the fourth, Raju Gogoi, is on the run.
Based on the statement of the rape survivor, a case has been filed against the accused at Dibrugarh police station under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
Karun Gogoi is a student of Aniruddha Deva Junior College, Dibrugarh, while the other three are students of Lahowal College, he said. All the accused are residents of Romai Kordoibam village in Ghoramara area of Lahowal, around 20km from Dibrugarh town. Raju Gogoi used to stay in a rented house in Bylane 2 in Banipur area and on Saturday he had invited his three friends to his place.
Narrating the sequence of events, the officer in charge of Dibrugarh police station, Naba Kumar Bora said that the rape survivor, a resident of the town, had a tiff with her parents over some matter. Around 9pm, she went out of her home. She then sought the company of a cousin brother to visit her relative’s place in Panitola area of Tinsukia.

The three of the four suspects arrested in the gang-rape case. (PTI photo)
Around 11.10pm, the two of them boarded an auto-rickshaw for Dibrugarh railway station, located around 5km from her home, with the intention of catching a train.
As they were prepared to pay only Rs 200 as fare, the autorickshaw driver dropped them at a secluded spot about a kilometer away from the railway station.
As they were walking towards the railway station, they came across the four boys waiting by the side of the road on two motorcycles. All of a sudden, the four boys pounced on the duo. While one of them grabbed the girl, the three others pinned her cousin to the ground. Then tying his hands and legs with a rope, they carried him to a nearby paddy field and threw him there. The four then took turns to rape the girl.
As the accused were preparing to leave after committing the crime, a police team on night patrol came across them. Perplexed by their sudden arrival, three of them sped away on their motorcycles while one of the accused, Pranjit Dutta, was left behind.
“He (Pranjit) was nabbed by our men while trying to flee across a paddy field. The girl’s relative was also rescued. I was informed about the rape at exactly 12.05am and immediately dispatched three police teams on motorcycles. Within a span of 2 hours we managed to nab two others from a house in the area. We are searching for the fourth one,” the OC said.
The rape survivor, who also suffered injuries on her body, has been sent for a medical examination.