Seven Arrested in Guwahati Gangrape Case

Guwahati: The Assam police on Friday registered a case of gangrape suo moto and arrested seven people so far after a video of the incident went viral in Guwahati. However the woman in the video is yet to be identified.

Referring the viral video that was brought to the notice of police by residents of Guwahati, police said that that preliminary investigations revealed that the incident occurred in a remote temple on a hill during the Raas festival. Meant to celebrate the Hindu god Krishna, the Raas Mahotsav is one of the state festivals of Assam which usually is celebrated during late November or early December.

Pointing out that the video and the incident came to the notice of police on Thursday night, the DCP Guwahati (West) Mr Padmanabh Baruah told reporters, “There is a video being circulated through WhatsApp in which a woman is being gang-raped by 8-9 men. That reached our Officer in Charge and immediately, the personnel at the Garchuk police station saw a number of the men’s faces. At around 3-3:30 am, a team went to the area concerned and began inquiries and got the identities of a few of the men, and arrested three of the men. Since then, with operations in different parts of Guwahati, we have arrested seven men”.

The seven men arrested so far have been identified as Kuldeep Nath, Bijoy Rabha, Pinku Das, Gagan Das, Saurav Boro, Mrinal Rabha and Diapankar Mukhia — all aged between 18 and 23. According to the police, while some are believed to be working as construction labourers, others are delivery executives.

Besides these, two more have been identified, although they are currently on the run.

The viral video indicated that the incident took place in a community temple premises. It has angered the residents of the area who asked the police to arrest all the accused.

The DCP who is supervising the investigation said , “At that time, the Raas Mahotsav was going on and all these men, who live nearby, had gone out to watch it… Some of them had then gone to the temple to drink alcohol and some to consume drugs. One of them had brought a woman with him there and all of them together sexually assaulted and gangraped her. One of them also took a video of it (and) the video of which has become viral.”