Bengal Police arrest male friend of Durgapur gang-rape victim
The Statesman | 15 October 2025The youth hailing from Malda was detained by the police on Saturday wee hours after he took the injured girl to the medical college hospital’s emergency ward. The deputy commissioner of police, Durgapur, Abhishek Gupta said: “Many of his statements mismatched with the reality especially after today’s reconstruction of the crime scene.”
The girl’s father had mentioned about five names in his complaint, while the police made the sixth arrest today.
The police commissioner of ADPC, meanwhile, said at a late evening Press conference that it is not at a case of gang rape, the offense was committed by a single youth.
“The offense was committed by a single person and as the medico-legal examination suggests, no involvement of any other could be established as yet,” the commissioner, Sunil Chowdhury, stated. The police also seized the ‘boyfriend’s’ clothing today.
The police have taken the arrested five youths in remand and had forwarded them to the ACJM Court bringing charges of gang-rape and Assembly for common intentions [under Section 70 (1) and 3(5) of the BNS.
“The presence of the arrested five youths in connection with the alleged ‘gang rape’ of the second year medical student was established during the reconstruction of the crime today,” said the CP. He said: “We’ve already arrested the entire five persons and the mobile phone of the victim that was snatched from the possession of the victim was recovered from one of the arrested youths.” He however added that the role of the victim’s boyfriend still was under scanner.”
Chowdhury said: “He is quizzed frequently and some of his statements were yet to be scrutinised further.” Chowdhury denied any information about the case to be handed over to the CBI.
The CP might have said it is not a gang rape on the basis of medical report but legally it is different.
The law states that even if only one person commits the sexual assault, it can still be prosecuted as gang rape if others were present and acted with a “common intention” to commit the crime. Indian law, under Section 376D of the Indian Penal Code (now Section 70 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita), recognizes that the culpability in a gang rape extends to all involved parties.
