GUWAHATI: One of the three accused in the gang rape of a class 10 student on August 22 in Assam‘S Nagaon District drowned in a pond while trying to escape from custody during a crime scene re-enactment Saturday morning, police said. Tafazul Islamwas pulled out with his hands tied and a rope attached to it, Prabin Kalita reports.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed the police version, while reiterating the rape as an attack on the state’s indigenous population. “The criminals who dared to commit such a heinous crime against a minor Hindu girl… will not be spared by the law. A particular community is becoming very active after the LS elections,” he had said on Thursday.
On Saturday, the CM said, “In Assam, whenever such crimes against women take place, whatever action needs to be taken, our police takes immediate action. There is no compromise… we have a zero tolerance policy. The other two fugitives (suspects) will be caught very soon.”
Residents of his village Borbheti announced that they “will not allow his burial in the public cemetery, will not participate in his ‘janaza’ (funeral prayers) and will socially boycott his family”.
The girl was raped by three men on Thursday night as she returned home from her tutoring. Police found her semi-conscious on a deserted road and Tafazul was arrested on Friday.
Nagaon SP Swapnaneel Deka said Tafazul was brought to the rape site in handcuffs for crime scene reconstruction around 3.30 am on Saturday. “There, the accused hit the policeman holding the rope and jumped into the pond. We immediately cordoned off the area. It was dark,” Deka said, adding that SDRF was informed and a search operation was launched. The body was found after nearly two hours, he said.
The crime, which took place in an area populated mainly by the Muslim immigrant community, reignited public anger against Bangladeshi settlers – a key aspect of the anti-foreigner agitation of the 1980s.