Rape cuffs on classmate

Subhasish Chaudhuri, TT, Krishnagar, Oct. 15: A 19-year-old Nadia youth has been accused of abducting his classmate, raping her along with some friends and then strangling her before hanging the body from a tree.

The body of the girl, a 16-year-old, was found this morning by villagers. The youth, who had fled home after the crime last night and was found loitering in a corner of the village by the girl's neighbours, has been arrested. Police sources said he had confessed to raping the girl with his friends but denied murdering her.

The sources said the girl's mother had complained to the villagers that the boy had been stalking her for the past few months and had even threatened to abduct and marry her.

"The girl had stepped out of home to go to the bathroom in the courtyard. The boy and his friends abducted her and took her to a field, where they raped and murdered her," a police officer said.

The girl, daughter of a construction labourer, was staying with her grandmother. Her parents had gone to visit an ailing relative in Burdwan.

After the girl's grandmother raised an alarm that the Class XI student had been abducted, neighbours started looking for the boy, suspecting his involvement because of the alleged threat to marry her forcibly. Police sources said an autopsy had confirmed rape and death by strangulation.