The Kolkata police claimed to have solved the February 5 rape of a 37-year-old woman in a moving car here,with the arrest of two men from Howrah station Saturday as they were reportedly trying to flee the city.
The two are said to have confessed,saying that one of their friends had raped the woman and they were part of the same group. The main offender as well as two others who were reportedly also part of the group are absconding. The police are verifying if the youths,who used to frequent nightclubs in the city,were involved in other such crimes.
Joint Commissioner of Police Crime Damayanti Sen said rape had been confirmed and the inconsistencies in the womans statements were due to trauma and the fact that she had been drunk at the time of the assault. Earlier,Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had claimed the womans story was fabricated and meant to malign her government.
CCTV footage obtained from inside the nightclub where the men befriended the victim and at the entrance and lobby helped the police track down the accused. The alleged threatening calls they made to the victim helped trace their location.
What delayed investigations was that the men pretended to be someone else,taking on names of members of another group with whom they had once had a fight. The woman managed to identify them through Facebook.