Mumbai:

A 19-year-old nursing trainee was raped, allegedly by an auto-rickshaw driver, in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district. According to preliminary information, the victim had taken an auto-rickshaw ride home when the driver offered her drinking water. The water was spiked and the teenager lost consciousness. The driver then allegedly took the victim to a deserted place and sexually assaulted her.

On regaining consciousness, the victim informed her family and later registered a police complaint. An FIR has been registered and police are scanning CCTV footage to zero in on the accused. The woman is recovering at a state-run hospital.

The incident has sparked protests in the area. Local residents blocked a road for hours last night, demanding swift action in the case.

The Ratnagiri incident comes amid nationwide outrage against crime against women in the aftermath of the horrifying rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The doctor, who was on night duty at the state-run hospital, was found dead in a seminar hall the next morning. Medical examination confirmed sexual assault. Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer who frequented the hospital, was arrested the day after the incident. The investigation into the case was transferred to the CBI after a Calcutta High Court order.

Maharashtra, too, is outraged after two minor girls were sexually assaulted at a school in Badlapur. Police have arrested an attendant of the school for allegedly abusing the girls.