2 accused shot in leg ‘while trying to escape’, say police

BENGALURU: Two of the four men arrested for allegedly raping and torturing a woman, suspected to have been trafficked from Bangladesh, were injured on Friday when they were fired at as they allegedly tried to flee after attacking a police party that took them to the crime scene in Bengaluru, officials said.

Six people, including two women, were arrested from Bengaluru’s Ramamurthy Nagaron on Thursday after a video circulating online purportedly showed the men raping and torturing the woman, who is believed to be in her early 20s. Two other women, also named as accused, were purportedly seen in the video.

A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the 3.5 minute-video appeared to be at least 10 days old. “They used bottles to assault her (the woman), and they were shooting the entire ordeal,” the officer said.the incident took place in Bengaluru last week.

The rape survivor was traced to Kerala after the alleged incident and brought back to the city by the police on Friday. Her condition is stable and she is undergoing tests in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru police said the two accused, aged 25 and 23, were shot in their legs by the security team in self-defence when the four men -- also believed to be Bangladeshi immigrants -- were taken to a house for recreation of the crime scene on Friday morning. The two who were injured -Ridoy Babu and Sagar -- are admitted to a government-run hospital in Bengaluru and their condition is stable, police said.

The other two arrested men were identified as Mohammed Baba Sheikh and Hakeel. Police did not identify the two women arrested in the case as they are suspected to be victims of human trafficking as well.

In a statement late on Thursday, Bengaluru Police said the six arrests were made based on the images of the suspects from the video shared by the Assam Police earlier this week.

“On the basis of the contents of the video clip and facts as disclosed during preliminary interrogation of the secured persons, a case of rape, assault and under other relevant provisions of law has been registered against the accused...” the statement added.

Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant said on Thursday that all the accused and the survivor are believed to be from Bangladesh. “Due to financial differences, the culprits brutalised the victim, who is also said to be a Bangladeshi, brought to India for human trafficking.”

The incident was flagged by Assam Police first on Thursday morning, and later redirected to the Bengaluru police after they received information about a possible suspect in the city.

“So we formed our teams to follow these leads and were able to detain one of them and based on the information provided we arrested the rest of the accused,” Pant said.

Another police officer said on the condition of anonymity that the Bangladesh Police helped identify one of the suspects -Ridoy Babu, of Tejgaon in Dhaka -- based on his Tiktok account and the video circulating online.

“The cops tracked down his (Babu’s) family and made his uncle call him on Whatsapp. On the call, Ridoy admitted that he was one of those seen in the video. He (Babu) also identified the victim. This was what we have been told (by Bangladesh police),” the officer said.