Goreswar on boil after gangrape of minor

By Our Correspondent

GORESWAR, Aug 25: A minor girl was raped inside a bus at Goreswar in Baksa district on the night of 22 August, triggering off massive protests by students, youth and social organisations in the area on Tuesday.

According to reports, the 13 year old girl of a poor Adivasi family from Bihali in Sonitpur district, had been taken by her parents to Baihati Chariali in Kamrup district on 14 August last to work as a domestic help in the house of a NF Railway employee. However after eight days, the homesick girl ran away and boarded a bus to Guwahati at Gachbari chowk.

After finding no bus bound for Bihali at Guwahati, the girl remained seated in the bus sporting the ‘PALLAB’ logo and bearing number plate AS-01-EC 420. That Saturday night itself the driver Bote Ali and helper Rubul Ali trapped the girl inside the bus and drove off to Goreswar. Stopping at Uparkhuti chowk in Suwagpur, the duo raped the girl repeatedly.

On the morning of 23 August, the girl maged to escape from the bus and hid in a nearby hut, from where she was rescued by some local people.

The Adivasi Students Union later lodged an FIR at the Suwagpur police outpost, based on the girl’s account of her night of ordeal. The bus was later seized but the two rape accused are absconding.

Meanwhile, the Adivasi Students Union, ABSU, AGSU, AKRSU, Yuba Chatra Parishad, ABMSU, Goria-Moria Desi Jatiya Parishad, Barman Kachari Chatra Santha, Rabha Jatiya Parishad and several other students, youth and women’s organisations took out protest rallies and staged demonstrations on Tuesday, demanding exemplary punishment for the perpetrators.  Police investigations are going on. The victim has been sent for medical examition to a civil hospital in lbari.