Bengaluru gang rape: India hands over Bangladeshi victim

India today (May 21, 2022) handed over the victim, who was gang-raped in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru in May last year, to Bangladesh.

She was handed over formally to Tejgaon division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police this evening through Benapole border in Jashore, Biplab Kumar Sarkar, deputy police commissioner of Tejgaon division of DMP.

He said the victim is now under their custody. They are on the way to Dhaka.

A DMP official, wishing not to be named, told The Daily Star that medical tests of the victim will be conducted tomorrow (May 22, 2022).

The victim would then be produced before a court to know the details about the trafficking and torture.

The official said the victim is witness of some incidents, and she would testify in the case that was filed in Bangladesh.

A special court in India's Bengaluru city has convicted nine Bangladeshis and punished them with sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment in connection with the gang rape.

In a judgement pronounced yesterday (May 20, 2022), the court sentenced Chand Miya, Mohammed Rifakdul Islam, Mohammed Al Amin Hossien, Rakibul Islam, Mohammed Babu Sheik, Mohammed Dalim and Azim Hossain to rigorous Imprisonment for life, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Among the other convicts, Taniya Khan was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment while Mohammed Jamal five years.

Two other Bangladeshi nationals were convicted of offences under the Foreigners Act and sentenced to nine months of simple imprisonment.

Eleven, out of the 12 arrested and charge-sheeted, as well as the victim were Bangladeshi nationals who had entered India and lived in Bengaluru illegally. And another arrestee is an Indian who was acquitted as he turned into an approver in the case.

The charge sheet in the case was filed within 28 days of the crime and the trial was completed in three months.

The incident came to light after a video of the rape first went viral in Bangladesh and was then found to have been committed in Bengaluru.

A case was filed under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act as well as under the Foreigners Act.

The incident had grabbed national headlines after the video of the assault had gone viral.

Bengaluru police found out that the incident had taken place in Kanaka Nagar in Ramamurthy Nagar police limits of Bengaluru city and arrested all the accused and booked them under of IPC, Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, IT Act and Foreigners Act.

The police who had arrested 12 persons found that 11 persons were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and one turned out to be a local.