Thiruvananthapuram: The police have arrested six people, including the husband of the woman who was allegedly gang-raped and tortured on Thursday evening in front of her four-year-old son near a beach in Thiruvananthapuram.
The survivor, in her statement to the police, said her husband’s friends attacked her with his help. She said she saw them paying him money.
The husband (30) and his friends Mansoor (30), Rajan (65), Akbar Shah (25), Manoj (24) and Arshad (26) are the ones arrested. The police are looking for another accused Noufali (26).
The police have registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, against them for assaulting the four-year-old son of the woman.
The accused from Vettuthura, Channankara, have a criminal history and have been arrested earlier, too, the police said.
The magistrate has recorded the confidential statement of the survivor. The statement was taken on Friday morning, as she was under the influence of alcohol on Thursday after the alleged assaulters had forced her to consume it.
The survivor had serious wounds on her body, including cigarette burns.
The police said the four-year-old son will be made the main witness in the case.
Victim was staying separately
According to the police, the survivor was staying separately from her husband. However, he brought her back to his Pothencode home a month ago.
On Thursday evening, he took her and their two children on a scooter saying they were going to a. beach. He took them to Puthukurichi.
He then said he wanted to visit a friend and took them to the house of Rajan, an alcoholic. There, he started consuming alcohol with his friends and also forced her to drink it.
The survivor told Manorama News that her husband had taken her to Rajan's house twice before.
A little later, when her husband went out with his two-year-old son, one of the friends forcefully grabbed her, the police said. On seeing this, Rajan’s wife told her to escape with her four-year-old son.
When she got out of the house, her husband’s friends tried to calm her and said they will take her to him. But instead of taking her to her husband, they took her in an autorickshaw to an abandoned outhouse in a desolate place.
They made her forcibly drink alcohol and tortured her at the outhouse, the police said.
When her frightened four-year-old son screamed, Mansoor assaulted him, the police said.
The attackers escaped when she fell unconscious.
After regaining consciousness a little later, she ran to the nearby road with her son. She only had her outerwear.
A group of youths who were passing by in a car took her to her family home.
The police were then informed about the assault. The Kadinamkulam police took her to the Chirayinkeezhu taluk hospital. The police took her husband into custody on the same night.
The survivor has been discharged from the hospital and she is said to be stable.
According to locals, Rajan is notorious in the area for being a drug dealer.
