Assam: Numaligarh Refinery Limited Official Arrested on Rape Charges

GUWAHATI: Assam Police arrested a senior official of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) from the Rehabari area of Guwahati on Friday on the charges of raping his colleague.

The arrested official identified as Nihar Prasad Sharma works as a deputy general manager at NRL. He has been arrested based on a first information report lodged by a woman engineer of the oil company.

In the FIR, the woman alleged that she was raped by Sharma on July 19 this year at his official residence (quarter inside the campus of Numaligarh Refinery Limited) after spiking her drink. The complaint was lodged with the Numaligarh police station in the Golaghat district on Thursday. Sharma has been absconding since the FIR was lodged. He was arrested from Guwahati on Thursday night. A case of rape has been registered against the accused by the police and further investigations are underway.

As per the latest reports, Sharma was found positive for coronavirus after his medical examination was done (routine process) and he has been admitted to a hospital in Golaghat.

Earlier, the woman had lodged a complaint with the higher authorities of Numaligarh Refinery in connection with the incident. The NRL employees' association had also brought the matter to the attention of the NRL's chief general manager by registering a complaint. The oil company, however, tried suppressing the matter, reports said.

It has been reported that the incident of rape came to light on August 4, but the woman engineer did not file any complaint before the police. However, she lodged a complaint before the refinery's internal women committee, but the refinery authority did not any action.

It was probably the second incident of the arrest of a person in the state in the past three months for allegedly raping his colleague. A 34-year-old doctor was held in June this year for allegedly raping a female colleague in the Dibrugarh district.

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