Police have arrested seven Trinamool Congress supporters for allegedly raping the wife of a Left supporter. The incident took place in Amta area of Howrah district on Wednesday night.

According to reports, the victim was alone in her home when eight Trinamool supporters barged inside and ransacked the house before raping her.



A feud between the victim's husband and the accused is believed to be the reason behind the incident.

A relative of the victim said, "When I called them up at 10 o'clock in the night, they said that they are having dinner. Later, I got a call from them at 2 o'clock in the morning but could not talk to them. We have lodged an FIR. There are scratch marks all over her body. They forced the door open at night, took her to the yard in front of the house and raped her. The incident took place around 11 pm."

Sukumar Bodhak, a neighbour, told, "I got to know about the incident in the morning. Police had come by then and I guess hostility between them is the cause of this incident. Last night, a few boys had gathered here because of Saraswati Puja. There was no man in the house when these boys broke into the house from the roof. It is estimated that about 12 boys were there. Of them, seven have already been arrested. The police are looking for the rest."



Reacting to the incident, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said, "Women are not safe anywhere. This is shocking. These are not natural problems but this has become a human tendency...that includes Bengal."

Trinamool MP Mukul Roy, however, blamed media for raising such cases just to malign the TMC. "The rapists cannot be identified by their religion or party. Have you seen whether the accused has a TMC identity card or not? This is just an example of corporatisation of journalism where other parties are paying the media to malign the name of a party. This is completely unfair."