Howrah : Cops from Shyampur PS arrested a shopkeeper, Dilip Khanra (30), early on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting a woman and stripping and sexually assaulting her on a road in Howrah on Monday night. The attack was so severe that her right eye was damaged.
Drunk, he screamed vulgar abuses at the woman, a mother of two daughters, aged 14 and 17.
Police said Khanra evaded them through the night but was caught at dawn. When she asked him to leave, he assaulted her, said police. Despite blood oozing out her right eye, he allegedly pulled off her sari and sexually assaulted her, police said.
The woman was taken to a rural hospital and later, admitted to Uluberia Medical College and Hospital, where she underwent immediate surgery in her eye. Booked for assault, causing grievous injury and outraging a woman’s modesty, he has been remanded in police custody. Khanra allegedly threw her to the ground and repeatedly punched, slapped and kicked her. Alerted by her daughters’ screams for help, as neighbours came running, Khanra fled before police could arrive.
A specialist on Tuesday told the woman’s family and police that her right cornea was so severely damaged that restoring normal vision would be difficult despite continued treatment. Police said Khanra started a ruckus outside the woman’s house on Monday night.