Assam: TV scribe booked for sexual assault

Guwahati: A Guwahati-based journalist has accused the correspondent of a national television channel Aniruddha Bhakat Chutiya, of “kidnapping” and physically and sexually assaulting her.

Dispur Police registered the FIR against the broadcast reporter under sections 354 (Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 341 (Punish-ment for wrongful restraint), 392 (Punishm-ent for robbery), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The accused was taken into custody soon after the complaint was lodged on December 1 but was released on bail on December 3.

The complainant alleged that the police is acting under pressure and therefore released him from custody without even presenting him before a magistrate. “The due process was not followed under some pressure,” she said.

While narrating her trauma on December 1, the complainant said that she was stopped at a stationery shop around 9.30 pm on her way home from work. “He was drunk, stopped me to talk and before I could react, he and his friend dragged me into their house on the lane by putting a knife near my neck,” she told reporters. After being forcefully taken into the house (located in an adjacent area named Jayanagar), she said that her hands were tied to a chair. “When I resisted, he also sexually assaulted me. His mother was also present in the room and abetted him,” she further added.

Once her hands were allegedly set free, she took out her mobile phone, , and informed her colleagues about her whereabouts, following which they came and rescued her, she said adding that Chutia lived in a lane next to her home and that they had met previously a couple of times, strictly on professional terms.