5 held for rape of Muzaffarpur shelter home’s former inmate

BETTIAH: The Bihar police on Monday night arrested five people accused of raping an 18-year-old woman, who was an inmate of a Muzaffarpur shelter home.

The woman, who had stayed only for a couple of days at the shelter home, was allegedly gang raped in a moving vehicle in Bettiah last Friday.

The alleged crime came to light on Sunday after the woman filed a police complaint. The woman lives with her mother at a rented accommodation in Bettiah. The woman’s father is a fruit vendor in Nepal. Bettiah police superintendent Jayant Kant said three of the accused were named in the woman’s complaint. “Search for one Dinanath Kumar is still on. Four persons have confessed to their crime and they will be sent to jail,” said Kant.

Those arrested have been identified as Sajan Kumar, Akash Kumar, Kundan Kumar, Anshu Kumar, and Raj Kumar. The accused were arrested from different locations. Akash Kumar, Sajan Kumar, Dinanath Kumar, and Kundan Kumar are in their early 20s, the police said. They are residents of Bettiah. The five allegedly dragged the woman into an SUV when she was going to visit a relative and raped her before dropping her off near her residence.

The woman is undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit of a local hospital, where doctors said her condition is stable. A police officer, requesting anonymity, said, “The medical condition of the woman does not require her to be in the ICU, but she has been kept there only to insulate her.” The Muzaffarpur case hit the headlines in 2018 after a social audit report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences said over 30 girls were allegedly raped at government-aided shelter home.