The West Bengal Police have arrested two men for allegedly raping a tribal woman in a village in South Dinajpur district last week, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday. Some reports claimed the woman has a mental health problem.
The incident came to light on Sunday after a passerby found the woman in an unconscious state under a bridge in the village on Sunday. South Dinajpur Superintendent of Police Prasun Banerjee confirmed the arrest of the two men, and said the woman was attacked on February 17 when she was returning from a fair. She was lying under the bridge for nearly 18 hours with no help.
Medical superintendent Amit Kumar Dawn said the woman was brutally assaulted. She has undergone two surgeries at Malda Medical College and Hospital and is now responding well, the police said. Other reports, however, claimed that she was still in a critical condition.
“The woman told me [that] Ram Prabesh Sharma, a resident of Dehaband village, and some other persons abducted her and gangraped her in a secluded place,” Dhamu Soren, the man who found her, said in his police complaint. “It seems after raping the girl, the accused assaulted her with some weapon.”
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