Kolkata: A minor girl was allegedly raped multiple times in a five-star hotel in Siliguri, West Bengal, after she was coerced to drink alcohol in a restaurant/pub on March 20. The accused is a resident of Assam and fled to his home state after the incident.
A team of West Bengal police tracked and arrested Sagar Chetri, the accused, in Assam on March 30, but failed to bring him back to Siliguri as a senior Assam police officer allegedly intervened and allowed Chetri to go scot-free for reasons unknown.
However, in a separate case, Jignesh Mevani, the sitting MLA of Vadgam assembly constituency of Gujarat, was taken into custody by a team of Kokrajhar (Assam) police on April 20 night from the western state on the allegation that a tweet he had written two days ago against Prime Minister Narendra Modi would ‘incite’ enmity between two communities. The MLA was re-arrested in a separate case after he was granted bail in the first case.
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Chetri is involved in his family’s real estate business and keeps shuttling between Siliguri and Guwahati. The 17-year-old’s best friend (also a minor) was allegedly in a relationship with Chetri and had planned to meet him on March 20. Chetri sent his car along with his “girlfriend” to pick up the minor from her house. They went to Siliguri’s famous Vega Circle Mall. Then, they went to ‘The Barcode’, which is located on the third level of the mall.
According to the minor’s recorded statement, she met Chetri for the first time in the pub. Speaking to The Wire, the girl’s sister said, “They met for the first time and all of them were playing Picolo (a group drinking game). After a couple of shots, my sister told her friend that she is not feeling right and she won’t drink further. At that time, her friend and Sagar (Chetri) forced her to drink. Under peer pressure, she drank more. My sister then saw a friend and requested him to drop her home. But they didn’t allow it and took her away with them. They later went to JW Marriott, Siliguri. She was in a semi-unconscious state when taken to JW Marriott, where her ID was not even checked. When my sister was alone in the room, Sagar raped her.”
After the incident at about 10 pm, Chetri dropped her somewhere near her house. The girl was shocked, traumatised and returned home. “Next morning, she was in immense pain and could barely move. My mother checked her full body and found that she was bruised in various parts. There were needle marks too.”
On March 22, the minor’s family registered a first information report (FIR) in Pradhan Nagar police station, under section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. Her medico-legal case (MLC) was conducted on March 23, which confirmed “forced unnatural sex”. Later, the girl’s statement was recorded in front of the judicial magistrate on March 31, under section 164 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure (CRPC).
After Chetri fled Siliguri, a team of West Bengal police was sent to Assam to arrest him. With the help of Assam Police, they tracked him in Dhubri on March 30. They later brought him to Dhubri police station for documentation.
At the same time, the additional superintendent of police Dhubri, Rosy Sharma, allegedly intervened, took all the documents, and released the accused without any substantive argument.
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The Wire reached out to Sharma and Dhubri’s superintendent of police, Abhijit Gaurav, but the call went unanswered. The story will be updated if and when they respond.
On April 6, Chetri filed an application for a transit anticipatory bail in the Gauhati high court. The next day, he was granted anticipatory bail for two weeks, as per the order uploaded on the website.
Nearly a week later, on April 12, the girl’s family moved the Supreme Court. The case was first heard on April 18 and then again on April 22.
In the second hearing, the apex court said it wanted to examine the “legal issue arising/emerging from the present petition as to what is the scope and ambit of the transitory bail under the provisions of the CrPC.” The court also declined to extend the period of the transit anticipatory bail which was expiring on April 25.
The transitory bail order stated that before the expiry of the bail, the accused must surrender before the jurisdictional court. As of April 27, Chetri has neither surrendered before the jurisdictional court nor to the Pradhan Nagar police station. He is still absconding.
