BENGALURU: The Ramamurthy Nagar police, who are interrogating the suspects accused of sexually abusing and torturing a 24-year-old woman in the city recently, have unearthed that the victim had to repay a sum of Rs 5 lakh which she owed them, but was avoiding them whenever they sought repayment.
A senior police officer confirmed that the accused are being interrogated. “We have learnt that the victim, who is alleged to be part of a prostitution racket, had taken advance payment of Rs 5 lakh from the accused. But whenever they confronted her for the repayment over the last few days, she was avoiding them. At one point, when they demanded that the cash be returned, she refused to do so and escaped. It was then that two female suspects, Nasarat and Kajal, managed to track her down and hand her over to the others who then sexually abused her, while one of them video-recorded the assault, which went viral after a week,” he said.
Meanwhile, the police will produce the victim before the magistrate on Monday to record her statement under Section 164 of CrPC, while all the accused will be sent to judicial custody, another officer added. The investigation team has already video-recorded the victim’s statement on Saturday.
Four days ago, a gang of seven Bangaladeshis, including two women, were arrested by the city police after video footage of the act emerged on social media in Assam, with that state’s police tweeting an alert across the North-East. A day later, however, two of the accused were shot at by Bengaluru police, after they allegedly tried to attack them in a bid of escape.