Image Courtesy: thenortheasttoday.com
Satkathia forest, where the gang-rape occurred, is barely 1km from the Ghatshila-Baharagora stretch of NH-33.
In their mid-20s, the trio also extorted Rs 5,000 in cash from their victim before fleeing.
The woman, a resident of Chauira village, Mahulisole panchayat in Dalbhumgarh, was going back home by the Chakulia-Haldipokhar bus after borrowing the money from her sister in Kashida village, Chakulia, when the incident occurred around 5pm yesteedaym it is likely that she was stalked.cording to Ghatshila subdivisional police officer (SDPO) R.K. Dubey, the victim said the three youths had been waiting on the highway at Satkathia for the bus inside which she was sitting with a dozen more passengers, including five or six women. Boarding the bus, the youths apparently made obscene gestures at her. One directly asked her to join them. When she refused, he whipped out a dagger and caught her.
Shockingly, other passengers simply did not intervene. But when the conductor did try and stop them, the trio threatened to kill him and forcibly dragged the woman out. Then, they forced her to walk from the highway to the forest where they raped her by turns and took her money that she had carried in a small cloth bundle. There should have been enough time yo stop the crime if the highway patrol had been available and alert, however.
According to the woman, who spoke to the media today in Jamshedpur where she was brought for medical tests, she somehow walked in torn clothes for four hours to cover 25km and reached Dhalbhumgarh near her village at 9pm. There, villagers took her to a police patrolling van that took her to Chakulia thana, which covers the crime spot.
“An FIR was lodged at 10pm at Chakulia thana against three unknown criminals and the woman stayed overnight at the police station. This morning, we first took her to a Chakulia referral hospital and then to MGM Medical College and Hospital in Jamshedpur for a medical test to confirm rape,” SDPO Dubey said.
He added that the police were interrogating bus staff.
Chakulia OC Sristidhar Mahto said it needed to be ascertained why the driver and conductor had not informed the police that a woman passenger had been dragged out of their bus. “We are trying to find out if the bus driver had a nexus with the three youths. Why didn’t bus staff inform the police on their own? Also, we will find out if they somehow knew she was carrying Rs 5,000 in cash, which is a large sum for rural people.”
The woman was traumatised and raids were on to apprehend the rapists, he added.