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In a shocking incident, a 20-year-old college student was kidnapped and gang-raped by four men in Tripura, a state in northeast India. The victim was returning from her college in the outskirts of the city when she was offered a lift by one of the accused, Gautam Sharma. According to the victim’s mother, there were three others in the vehicle, who also participated in the heinous crime.
The victim was recovered from an abandoned place along the bypass road in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, late on Monday night and was taken to a hospital, where her condition is stated to be critical. The prime accused, Gautam Sharma, who was the driver of the vehicle, was arrested on Wednesday night, but the other accused are still at large.
The incident has sparked widespread outrage in Tripura, with various organizations and student bodies organizing protests against the brutal act. The Tripura Ganatantrik Nari Samity, a women’s wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), the Students Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), and other organizations gheraoed the police headquarters in Agartala and organized a massive protest demonstration demanding punishment for the culprits.
Women leaders Rama Das and Krishna Rakshit have condemned the incident and said that students, girls, and women are not safe even in Tripura’s capital, Agartala. They alleged that the police are yet to arrest the other accused even after three days of the heinous crime.
The incident highlights the lack of safety for women in India, despite the government’s efforts to curb such crimes. Such incidents raise serious questions about the effectiveness of the measures taken by the government and law enforcement agencies to ensure women’s safety. The authorities must take strict action against the perpetrators of this heinous crime to prevent such incidents from recurring in the future.
