A 15-year-old girl who was out on a bicycle ride with her friend was allegedly stalked, chased and sexually assaulted by three men in a field a stone’s throw from Eco Park in New Town on Monday evening, police said.
Three men were arrested late on Tuesday based on a complaint lodged by the girl.
The men have been charged under various sections, including Section 4 (the offence of penetrative sexual assault which has a minimum punishment of seven years of imprisonment and a maximum punishment of life imprisonment) and Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault which has a minimum punishment of 10 years in jail and a maximum punishment of life imprisonment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
All of them were produced in a Barasat court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody for four days.
“One of the accused used to be a part-time driver of a police jeep in New Town. The other two earned a living by doing odd jobs,” said an officer of the commissionerate.
The Bidhannagar commissionerate did not divulge the names of the accused till late on Wednesday.
Multiple calls as well as a text message to deputy commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar commissionerate, Debasmita Das, went unanswered.
Sources at the commissionerate said the girl had set out from her house on her cycle and met a friend near Eco Park. The two decided to ride towards Harinalaya — a deer park — near Eco Park’s gate number 6.
An officer said the two were cycling through the roads behind Eco Park, which usually have less traffic than other roads, when the three men who were sitting on a field allegedly started following them.
The men allegedly passed lewd remarks at the girl, after which her male friend protested.
The three then allegedly surrounded them, kicked their bicycles and assaulted the teenaged boy, after which he fled from the scene.
According to the complaint, the girl was then dragged to a field behind a cement factory near the Bengal Silicon Valley. The men allegedly videorecorded the girl and threatened her with dire consequences if she told anyone about the assault.
“They snatched away the cellphones of the girl and the friend. She at one point managed to run away,” said the officer.
She approached a passer-by once she reached the road near the field and asked him for help. The man lent her his phone, from which she called her parents.
“The girl’s parents and their neighbours reached the police station and lodged a complaint. Based on the description given by her, we have arrested the men,” said another officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate.
Many people ride bicycles or jog on the relatively empty roads behind Eco Park.