Seven people have been arrested for allegedly raping a woman in Guwahati after the video of the incident went viral. Although the woman in the video has not been identified, the police are familiar with the case.
The police said that preliminary investigation shows that the incident took place in a remote temple on the hill during the Raas festival. Meant to celebrate the Hindu god Krishna, Raas Mahotsav is one of the national festivals of Assam which is usually celebrated in late November or early December.
According to DCP Guwahati (West) Padmanabh Baruah, the video and the incident came to the attention of the police on Thursday night.
“There is a video circulating on WhatsApp where a woman is raped by a gang of 8-9 men. That reached our Commanding Officer and soon, the Garchuk police station staff saw many faces of these men. Around 3-3:30 in the morning, the team went to the affected area and started questioning and got the details of a few men, and arrested three men. Since then, as we are working in different areas of Guwahati, we have arrested seven men,” he said.
The seven men arrested so far have been identified as Kuldeep Nath, Bijoy Rabha, Pinku Das, Gagan Das, Saurav Boro, Mrinal Rabha and Diapankar Mukhia – all aged between 18 and 23 years.
According to the police, although some are believed to be working as construction workers, others are delivery officials.
Apart from these, two others have been identified, although they are still at large.
“At that time, the Raas Mahotsav was going on and all these men who lived nearby had gone out to watch it… Some of them had gone to the temple to drink alcohol and some to take drugs. One of them had brought a woman there and they all sexually assaulted and raped her. One of them also took its video (and) its viral video,” said the DCP, adding that the police will register a suo moto case on gangrape and under the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, based on the video.
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