People belonging to the north-eastern states on Friday staged a protest outside a police station here over inaction in an Assam girl's rape incident on April 29 and demanded immediate arrest of the accused.Over 150 people, including women, gathered outside the DLF-1 police station and protested for over three hours.Both the accused and the victim worked at the Golden Eye Guest House in DFL-1 area.The protest was held under the banner of the north-east support centre helpline.
Mathew, one of the helpline activists, told IANS: "The rape accused would have been behind the bars if police had acted on time. The manager and some other employees at the guest house, where the crime occurred, also helped the accused to flee."
Protesters were shouting slogans against police and also demanding assurance of appropriate action from Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Deepak Saharan, who is also nodal officer for helping people hailing from the northeast, assured protesters that the accused would be arrested by Monday.Assistant Commissioner of Police Dharna Yadav, who is monitoring the investigation, also assured all support from police."We will hold bigger protest if police fail to arrest accused within the said time frame," Mathew said.A 19-year-old girl from Assam was raped by a 23-year-old man from Nepal on Wednesday.The girl said in her police complaint that she was raped by a guest house employee in the washroom.She also alleged that she informed the woman manager of the guest house about the incident but she, too, did not cooperate and helped the accused, Debu Tamar, to escape.
She said the sweeper of the guest house came to the washroom when she cried for help but instead of helping her he kept on laughing.Protesters said they wanted legal action against all who helped "rapist" Debu Tamar to escape.A special police helpline, 0124-2301559, launched here on October 28 last year for people from the northeast has not received relevant calls till date."We have requested police to SMS helpline numbers to all northeast people residing in Gurgaon, but police did not cooperate. We have circulated the number within our circle," added Mathew, who is senior executive at a private firm here."We have formed several teams to nab the accused. Police teams have also been sent to Nepal. The accused will be arrested soon," a senior police officer told IANS.