The neighbourhood where the trio were paraded naked
Kolkata: Police will get statements of key witnesses recorded before a magistrate even as they have doubled their efforts to trace the remaining accused in the Sarsuna case where an 18-year-old youth, his father and his 19-year-old friend were forced to strip at gunpoint and walk on the road naked last Sunday. So far, four people have been arrested, including the parents and the maternal uncle of the 13-year-old minor. Police have already secured the CCTV footage of the area even as statements of around 15 witnesses have been collected.
Sources said at least three locals, all friends of one of the accused, are under the scanner. Earlier, the three arrested men – the minor’s father, her maternal uncle and the maternal uncle’s friend — were taken in a police SUV to the Khudiram Pally Manasatala neighbourhood on Tuesday and asked to walk barefoot, wearing shorts and with rope tied to their bodies in a “bid to recreate the crime scene”. A large police and paramilitary force created a human chain around the accused to prevent them from being attacked by neighbours who are still fuming over their act of stripping the three men.
Among the key witnesses will be the 13-year-old minor, purportedly the girlfriend of the 18-year-old victim. On Sunday, soon after an acquaintance of the 13-year-old girl’s family spotted her with the teenager, the 18-year-old boy and his 19-year-old friend, who was standing nearby, were allegedly dragged to her home, locked in a room and assaulted by the accused, led by the minor’s father and maternal uncle.
All three victims and at least two witnesses, too, will be key in developing evidence against the accused, said cops. “They severely assaulted me in the presence of other people before asking me to kill my son,” the father had said. The girl’s mother then said she would heat the knife in a flame before I thrust it into my son’s stomach.
The girl’s family then summoned the boy’s father to their house. “They gave me a choice: ‘If you can’t use a gun, stab him with a knife. I had no choice but to agree to walk naked through the road,” he had added.
“The Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) has been tasked to carry out the investigation as minors are involved in this case and keep the sensitivity of the case in mind,” said additional CP (crime) Kunal Aggarwal. The development comes on the same day that the detective department has taken over the probe.