GUWAHATI: A CEO of a city-based finance company and three of his employees were arrested by police on Friday for allegedly raping their 37-year-old woman colleague, the second rape reported in three months.
The accused have been identified as Rafiq Ali, Ashraful Amin, Mukul Islam and Naimuddin Ali. Rafiq Ali is the CEO of the company and the victim is from the hilly district of Karbi Anglong.
“The victim joined the company on April 17. The incident happened on Wednesday when the victim had gone for lunch with Ashraful, Mukul and Naimuddin to a rented house where they lived. The victim said she had agreed to go with them as she was short of cash for lunch. The accused committed the crime there,” a police officer said.
Rafiq Ali was in office, but arrested him on suspicion of his complicity in the entire crime, police said. The woman reported the incident at the police station on Thursday and based on the complaint, police arrested the accused after a few hours. The officer said the accused were produced before the court of chief judicial magistrate, Kamrup (Metro) on Friday and sent to jail.
Earlier, five youths had allegedly raped a 16-year-old on February 16 in a hotel in the city and filmed the entire episode and threatened to post it online, if she reported the issue. They allegedly promised to delete the video and called the girl to a hotel in Guwahati on February 19 and sexually assaulted her again.
The prime accused in the case Biki Ali, who was arrested by the police on March 15, sustained bullet injuries in police firing while allegedly trying to flee custody by snatching the service weapon of a police officer on the same night. Later, he was rushed to the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) where the doctors had declared him dead.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
