By IANS,
Agartala : Four more men who stripped and beat a woman in public last week in western Tripura’s Sipahijala district are yet to be arrested, police said Monday. One of the absconding men is the victim’s husband.
“Efforts are on to nab the remaining offenders, including the victim’s husband Samir Kar. We have arrested seven people, including three women, in connection with the incident,” Sipahijala district police chief Smriti Ranjan Das told IANS.
Leaders of the All India Democratic Women Association (AIDWA) led by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) central committee members Rama Das Sunday visited Rangapania village where the incident took place and met the victim’s daughter, mother and others.
Another delegation of the opposition Congress led by Subal Bhowmik and Ashish Saha met the woman’s family Monday.
“Though Congress activists were involved in the incident, we are not making a political issue of it. We have asked the government for strict punishment of the culprits,” CPI-M state secretary Bijan Dhar told reporters.
According to the district police chief, the 26-year-old woman was stripped naked and brutally tortured for hours by 10 people, including three women, in full public glare at Rangapania village in western Tripura last week.
“After the brutal torture, the woman was tied to a tree for hours before her father came from a neighbouring village and rescued her,” police said.
Earlier, police had said the woman was gang-raped.
Police said that a day before the incident, two of the seven arrested culprits molested the woman when she was going home from the market.
Police suspect that the woman’s husband might have engaged the culprits to molest his wife as she refused to bring more dowry. He, too, is an accused in the case.
The victim married Samir Kar nine years ago and has a seven-year-old daughter.