75-year-old woman's disrobed body found in West Bengal, rape suspected

Burdwan, West Bengal: The disrobed body of a 75-year-old woman inmate of an ashram was found on Wednesday at Katwa, 60 km from here, fuelling allegations of a second rape of a senior citizen in West Bengal in a week.

Burdwan Superintendent of Police Kunal Ghosh said the woman's body was found a little distance from the ashram this morning at Agradeep and four persons have been detained in connection with the incident.

The widow was an inmate of Charandas ashram, which is holding the annual Gopinath Mela since March 16. Last evening a programme of devotional songs had been organised there.

Following the sighting of the body this morning, angry locals attacked the ashram alleging that the woman had been raped and murdered and beat up some of the people present there. The presence of a pair of trousers, a lighter and a pair of men's chappals led them to believe that the woman had been brutalised.

Agarwal said the body had been sent for postmortem and an investigation had been launched. On Saturday, a nun of a Christian convent had been allegedly gangraped at Ranaghat in Nadia district. No one has been arrested so far though 15 people have been detained.