A 32-year-old tribal woman and her boyfriend were allegedly captured, kept in confinement for a day, and then she was gang-raped in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, police said on Monday.
It is also being alleged that the woman and her boyfriend, who is a non-tribal, were later asked by a “kangaroo court to pay a fine”, they said, adding that the matter is being probed.
Police said they have arrested five persons in connection with the incident.
The woman, a widow with three children, was returning home in the Mohammadbazar area on her boyfriend’s bike on the evening of August 18 when they were stopped by a few men, she alleged in the police complaint that was filed on Saturday.
They were kept confined in a room that night and next day she was taken to a nearby forest area and allegedly gang- raped by five men, police said.
“All the five accused have been arrested,” Subimal Paul, additional superintendent of police of Birbhum district, said.
“The issue of a kangaroo court imposing a fine on them has not been mentioned in the police complaint made by the woman and the FIR. But there are allegations regarding it, so we are investigating that incident as well,” he said.
There are allegations that the gang-rape happened as she was having an affair with a non-tribal man, we are also looking into it, police said.
All the five arrested have been accused of gang rape, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation in the FIR registered by police.
