Park Street gangrape case prime accused apprehended
The prime accused in the Park-Street gangrape case, Kader Khan was arrested by a joint team of Delhi and Kolkata Police in Delhi. Khan was absconding and had fled to Dubai, and was traced back to Ghaziabad where police were tipped off about his arrival. Police are now in the process of identifying accomplices who helped Khan hide.
On 5 February 2012, a woman was picked up in a car in front of a pub at Park Street in the heart of the city of Kolkata. She had been offered a ride home by a man. When she had accepted, others had climbed in. Her abductors had gang raped her inside of a moving car, after which she was tossed out.
The victim had come to the police after 4 days of the incident and had named a certain Luvi Gidwani as the rapist who the police found was in Canada since two years. This had made the police accuse the victim of 'cooking up' the incident.
Kolkata CM Mamta Banerjee courted controversy when she described the rape as "cooked up" and said it was an endeavor to slander the government. Even police chief R.K. Pachnanda termed the entire case as a crusade to "malign police and the government." Banerjee later retrieved her comments saying that the media had distorted her statement and slammed media for creating division.
The Kolkata Police claimed to have cracked the Park Street rape case with the arrest of two persons from Howrah station; the key accused were however missing. The arrested men reportedly confessed to their crimes and also accepted that they used the names of Luvi Gidvani, Sharafat Ali, Azhar and Salman. The clothes they were wearing and the Honda car too was found.
On 3 March 2013, the in-camera trial of the Park Street rape case began at 3rd Fast Track Court in Kolkata. The judge of the fast-track court, Madhuchanda Bose, explained the determination of conducting the litigation in camera stating the event was a sensitive one. Previously, on 19 February 2012, the court had drafted charges against all accused in the case.
The brave Suzette Jordon who had come out of anonymity in June 2013 after being fed up with being termed as the 'Park Street rape victim' died of meningoencephalitis on 13 March 2015.
Giving its verdict in the Park Street gangrape case, the Kolkata sessions court found the 3 men - Ruman Khan, Naser Khan and Sumit Bajaj guilty. "The accused were found guilty under sections 376 (2)(g) (gangrape), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of IPC,". The quantum of punishment is yet to be decided.
The primary accused in the Park Street rape case Kader Khan and Mohammad Ali are still missing.
