Soma said five men gang-raped her on the night of 11 June in Begusarai after barging into the toilet outside her one-room home. The 28-year-old mother of four young children said hospital staff later removed objects from her body, turning the case into a focused assault investigation.
Begusarai superintendent of police Maneesh said the medical report has confirmed sexual assault. Police said three named accused and two unidentified accused were linked to the case, and raids were under way after two arrests.
Soma and Begusarai
Soma said the men stripped her, gagged her, tied her hands and slashed her chest with a blade when she tried to fight back. She said she was outside her one-room home at night when the attack started, and later carried a bullet casing, saying it was one of the items used.
The sequence of events matters for the response that followed. Soma's husband said he took her unconscious to a police station about 3 km from their home, but police refused to file a complaint and sent them away.
June in Bihar
The case has drawn wider attention in Bihar because it revived memories of the 2012 Delhi case, which made global headlines. Campaigners said women facing sexual assault in small towns and villages routinely encounter apathy from police and medical authorities in India.
For Soma, the immediate issue is not the comparison with 2012 but whether the remaining accused are found and whether the objects used in the assault are fully accounted for. Police said they were still conducting raids, and the investigation now rests on the medical report, Soma's account and the arrests already made.
