Three minor girls raped in north Bengal, accused arrested

Two incidents from Jalpaiguri district and one from Malda reported

In Jalpaiguri town, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped repeatedly by her stepfather. : Representational picture

TT Bureau   |   Malda, Jalpaiguri   |   23.06.22  : Three separate incidents of rape of minor girls have been reported in north Bengal, two from Jalpaiguri district and the third incident from Malda.

All the three accused have been arrested.

In Jalpaiguri town, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped repeatedly by her stepfather. She is one-and-a-half months pregnant and hospitalised.

Police sources said that the girl’s mother filed a complaint against the accused, who is a college teacher. He was arrested on Wednesday.

The girl’s father had deserted the mother when their daughter was some months old, said a police source. They had been living in distress. A couple of years ago, in 2000, the college teacher proposed to marry the woman.

The daughter started living in the stepfather’s house. “Some days back, the mother noticed some changes in her daughter. She eventually learnt that her husband raped her  daughter repeatedly and that the girl was now pregnant,” the police source said, adding that police were not revealing the name of the accused to protect the mother and daughter.

In another incident, Soyel Alam, a youth in a village of Jalpaiguri district, was also arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raping a minor girl on Monday night.

Sources said that Alam had spotted the girl at a wedding and dragged her to a field to allegedly rape her. When the girl fell ill, her family members inquired and learnt of the assault. She was admitted to a rural hospital.

In Malda, an 11-year-old girl was allegedly raped on Tuesday by a local youth.

Sources said that Santosh Goswami, the accused, took the girl to a jute field on some pretext and raped her.

Then, Santosh fled the spot. Some local residents spotted the child and informed her family members. The injured girl was taken to the local rural hospital.

Police quickly started tracking Santosh’s cell phone and eventually located his phone near the Bengal-Bihar border by Tuesday night. He was arrested.

During interrogation, Santosh admitted that he had planned to escape to Bihar, police sources said.