Kolkata: Two persons were on Saturday arrested
in connection with the alleged rape of an Anglo-Indian woman
in a case which was described by the chief minister as
"fabricated".
Sumit Bajaj and Rehman Khan alias Tusi, who masqueraded
as Lavi Gidwani and some other persons whom the woman named,
had befriended her at the night club, Joint Police
Commissioner (Crime) Damayanti Sen told PTI.
Police were looking for two others, whose identities had
been established, she said.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that the
incident was a 'fabricated story' and intended to malign her
government and blamed some TV channels for projecting it.
The woman had alleged that among the five who allegedly
raped her in a car at gunpoint and threatened her while she
was returning from a night club was Lavi Gidwani.
Police after investigating had found that Gidwani was in
Canada since January 2, while two others were found to be
elsewhere, which had prompted it to say that there were
'inconsistencies' in the woman's statement.
The woman in her mid thirties and a mother of two
children, had filed an FIR with the Park Street police station
four days after the incident.
Sen said police collected the CCTV footage from the night
club and spotted some persons around a car that night.
"However, the persons named in the FIR by the woman did
not match with the CCTV footage and it was ascertained that
the offenders were masquerading under other names to mislead
the victim," she said.
Sumit Bajaj of Port area and Rehman Khan, a resident of
north Kolkata, were arrested when they were going to the
Howrah station presumably to escape from the metropolis, Sen
said. The car was also impounded, she said.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, February 18, 2012, 22:11