The Bengaluru Police have submitted the charge sheet in connection with the gang rape of a woman from Bangladesh within five weeks of the incident coming to light. Police had made the first set of arrests on May 27 within hours of a video of the sexual assault going viral. The Ramamurthy Nagar Police have submitted a charge sheet consisting of as many as 1,019 pages in a short period of five weeks, senior police officials said.
City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant on Wednesday appreciated the efficiency of the police personnel and announced a Rs 1 lakh cash reward for those involved in the operation. “We have submitted a charge sheet on Tuesday evening. It has been done in a short time. The investigating officers have filed the charge sheet satisfactorily. We will investigate the case thoroughly,” Pant said.
The police are still investigating the human trafficking aspect as the survivor revealed a well-planned racket that was trafficking hundreds of women from Bangladesh to India through the international border illegally.
The police started an investigation after registering a suo motu case when the video of the incident went viral in the country and abroad in April. The police traced the survivor in Kerala and brought her to the city on May 30. The police had arrested five accused persons, including a woman, seen in the video in June. Two of the accused were shot in the leg on June 2 when they tried to escape.
Special teams were formed to investigate various angles in the case. The survivor had stated that she was an illegal migrant from Bangladesh. She had also revealed that the accused were business partners and she was involved in trafficking others. There was a misunderstanding on financial matters and the accused gang raped and tortured her.
The police have taken 12 persons into custody so far. This is not the first such incident. In January 2020, a 19-year-old woman from Bangladesh had reported a similar incident to the Yelahanka Police.