Bengaluru, May 28: Six Bangladesh nationals, including two women, were arrested in Bengaluru on Thursday in connection with the brutal sexual assault and gang rape of a woman in Ramamurthy Nagar, off Old Madras Road.
Earlier on Thursday, the Assam Police had promised to reward anyone who was able to identify the culprits seen in the widely circulated video, which led many in the Northeast to assumed that the victim was from Nagaland, based on reports of a Naga woman’s death by suicide in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, on Sunday, May 23.
The arrested accused are Sagar, 23, Mohammed Babu Sahik, 30, Ridoy Babo, 25, all residents of Bengaluru, and Hakil, 23, a resident of Hyderabad and the women, whose identity police did not reveal.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, IPS officer Robin Hibu, Meghalaya MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh and Assam Police were among the few who came out on social media earlier on Thursday to say the viral sexual assault video was not related to the Jodhpur suicide case and that authorities across states were working to ascertain the identity of the victim and the perpetrators.
The victim in the incident and the perpetrators have been identified as Bangladeshi citizens by the police in Bangalore as well as Dhaka.
“Based on the contents of the video and preliminary investigation, a case of rape and assault has been registered against 6 persons including 2 women at @ramamurthyngrps,” Bangalore police commissioner Kamal Pant said late on Thursday.
“A police team has also been deputed to an adjoining state to trace the victim so that she could join the investigation. According to the information revealed so far, all of them are part of the same group and are believed to be from Bangladesh. The victim who is also a Bangladeshi was brought to India for trafficking & was tortured & brutalized due to a financial matter,” he added.
..the investigation.
According to the information revealed so far, all of them are part of the same group and are believed to be from Bangladesh. The victim who is also a Bangladeshi was brought to India for trafficking & was tortured & brutalized due to a financial matter. 2/3
— Kamal Pant, IPS (@CPBlr) May 27, 2021
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The probe revealed gang had trafficked woman to Bengaluru:
Investigations revealed that the gang had trafficked the woman to Bengaluru. She initially broke free and fled to Kerala, but the gang forcibly brought her back to Bengaluru.
In the video, the female associate is seen helping the four men, who unleashed a brutal sexual assault on the trafficked woman, in Bengaluru. The video on social media went viral, especially in northeastern states, and the woman was suspected to be from the region.
Kiren Rijiju, Union minister of state for AYUSH, Youth Affairs and Sports, had appealed to netizens on Twitter to help crack the case.
Reportedly, the girl was getting all her documents ready for the past few months in order to travel to Saudi Arabia but went missing around three months ago. Bangladesh authorities suspected the girl was staying in India.
One of the accused has been identified as a resident of the Mogbazar area where he is known as Tiktok or Hridoy Babu in the area. Police showed the video to the suspect’s mother, who identified him as 26-year-old Rifatul Islam Hridoy, also known as ‘TikTok Hridoy Babu’. Authorities informed that they will be sharing more details about the culprit later.
