Howrah: Soon after the National Commission for Women (NCW) wrote to the West Bengal Police director general Rajeev Kumar demanding the immediate arrest of the accused in the Bankra porn case, Aryan Khan, one of the main accused, was arrested along with his 'companion' Zoya by Howrah Police on Wednesday.
Howrah City Police arrested two persons, including Aryan, son of Shweta Khan, from the Golf Green area in Kolkata. However, Shweta's whereabouts have not been found yet. Police are hopeful that Aryan's interrogation will throw up information about his mother Shweta Khan.
Police arrested Shweta's mother on Tuesday night. Aryan was finally caught in the police net in the incident of torturing the young woman while holding her captive. Earlier in the day, the NCW has also asked them to submit an 'action taken report' within three days. Another main accused in the porn case, Shweta Khan is still on the run. The NCW said in a statement on Tuesday, "This barbaric and bestial behavior cannot be tolerated in any civilized society. We are taking the incident very seriously."
"The National Commission for Women has come across a disturbing media post captioned 'Bengal woman confined for 6 months, beaten with iron rods for refusing porn work', wherein it has been reported that a woman from West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district was beaten up and tortured by a man and his mother for not agreeing to shoot pornography and work as a bar dancer. The woman was confined in a flat for six months, where she was assaulted, with her hands, feet and teeth broken, beaten with iron rods and not provided food for days," the NCW was quoted as saying in the letter to DGP.
The letter also states that a case should be registered against the accused under appropriate sections of the BNS and they should be arrested. Besides, the victim should be provided with immediate free medical and psychological counselling services.
A detailed 'Action Taken Report' detailing the steps taken in this incident will have to be submitted to the commission within three days. Meanwhile, the victim has been shifted from the surgical ward to the ICCU of Sagore Dutta Hospital after her condition started deteriorating.
The young woman victim was allegedly tortured by being kept in detention for six months for refusing to work in a pornography and dance bar in Bankra near Howrah. But last Friday, the victim fled the flat of Shweta Khan and her son Aryan Khan in Bankra and managed to return to her home in Sodepur. The NCW took suo motu action in the wake of this horrific incident. After the details of the physical and mental suffering of the victim were published in the media, the NCW chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar strongly condemned it and ordered the DG of West Bengal Police Rajeev Kumar to immediately arrest the accused.
The victim was allegedly kept in inhumane confinement and was regularly beaten with iron rods, denied food, and had her hands, feet, and teeth broken. The brutal torture shocked the entire state after the news went viral.
Shweta Khan, the main accused in the porn case, had allegedly enterted the crime world in 2015. Allegedly, at that time, this woman had hired a goon to seize her first husband's property and opened fire.
However, the residents of Sheikh Para in Bankra knew her as 'Phultushi'. While her name in government documents or identity cards is Mohsina Begum. After the shooting and her arrest with firearms, that name is also in the police records.
On Tuesday, the police searched the flat of that Mohsina alias Phultushi alias Shweta in Bankra. During the search, a bunch of hair was recovered from behind the flat. The police will now analyze the sample of that hair and will be sent for DNA testing. Investigators suspect that the recovered hair may belong to the Sodepur victim. In the zero FIR filed with Khardah Police Station, the victim had alleged that the hair on her head was trimmed.
Aryan, his mother confine woman for 5 months
On Friday morning, Shweta Khan and her son Aryan Khan were accused of keeping a young woman from Sodepur confined in their flat in Domjur for five months. Allegedly, she was tortured both physically and mentally. The victim alleged that they tried to get her to shoot pornography by luring her with an event management job. When she objected, she was kept in detention and tortured.
Regarding the hair recovered today during the investigation of this incident, an official of Howrah Police said, "If the mitochondrial DNA of the hair is found, it can be a solid proof of the allegation of rape and forced hair cutting." If that happens, Shweta and her son Aryan are in for further trouble. However, both of them are currently on the run.
The investigators recently found Shweta's Odisha link while searching for her. It is learnt that she had gone to Odisha last month for a photoshoot. Investigators also found information about her closeness with a businessman in Odisha.
