burqa-clad men

raped

rapists

In what is probably the first such rape case the city police have encountered, twobarged into a house in broad daylight and allegedlya woman when she was alone.What makes it even tougher for the cops is the victim cannot provide any visual clues of hersince they were covered from head to toe.The victim is a 21-year-old woman who lives in an upmarket area near Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. The incident is said to have taken place last week while the woman’s family members were away. The victim has told the police that the front door and gates were locked.However, they generally left the rear door unlocked. The accused, who seem to have been aware of this, entered the house from the back door around 11 am.The woman has told the police that seeing their attire she initially thought they were women. But, before she could react, the men covered her face with a cloth and dragged her into the bedroom.They gagged her and tied both her hands and legs using dupattas. While one of the accused pinned her down, the other allegedly raped her. She claims she was raped by only one man, while the other ‘helped’ him carry out the heinous act.“Going by the preparations made to conceal their identities by wearing burqas, we suspect the accused were known to the victim. When the victim resisted, she was beaten up,” said an officer, who is part of the investigations. The woman has claimed she tried to tear off the burqas to get a view of their faces, but the men had made sure she was firmly bound.She was discovered by her younger brother, who came home in the afternoon, and kept calling out for her. When there was no response, he panicked and started checking all the rooms. He found the victim trussed up, lying unconscious on the bedroom floor with her face covered. Cops suspect one of the accused might have been spurned by the victim. “He must have been stalking or pestering her.However, we cannot randomly accuse or subject anyone to medical tests. The victim has undergone medical tests and we are awaiting the report. We have to tread with caution as this is a tricky case,” the officer added.After the victim filed a complaint on February 26, police charged the two unidentified accused with rape, under section 376 of the IPC, besides section 448 of the IPC for trespassing. The South division police are investigating the case.