Bengal gang rape victim shifted to short stay home: Minister

The 20-year-old tribal woman who was gang raped by over a dozen men in West Bengal's Birbhum district last month has been sent to a short stay home at an undisclosed location after release from a local hospital, a minister said Saturday.

"It was her wish to go to her maternal uncle's home at Chouhata village and to be released from hospital. However, at her uncle's place... there is just land there, and no house has been constructed. So, for the time being, she is boarding at a short stay home," state Woman and Child Welfare Minister Shashi Panja said.

The minister supervised the shift of the victim to the home from the Suri Sadar Hospital where she was admitted following the Jan 20 sexual assault in Subalpur village in the district. The woman was discharged from the hospital Friday.

"Her counselling will continue and her security will be taken care of. Her mother is also with her. We are thinking of her future and how to make her self-sufficient," the minister said.

The woman was raped by more than a dozen men following the orders of a kangaroo court which found her "guilty of having an affair with a man outside her community".

Officials of the district administration as well as of the woman and child welfare department have been in constant touch with the victim.

Thirteen people, including the village headman who ordered the brutality, are behind bars.

The Supreme Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the case, has sought reports from the state government.