Silchar sexual assault case twists: Journalist thrashed post-enquiry, university kin in custody

What began as a complaint of alleged sexual assault on the outskirts of Silchar has, within the space of five days, drawn in a local journalist, a university office bearer, and the latter's father — a sequence of events that has prompted uncomfortable questions about whether the incidents are as unrelated as authorities currently maintain.

On February 19, a woman lodged a complaint alleging that she and her partner were confronted by seven to eight unidentified men while parked along Ramnagar Bypass Road. She alleged that she was sexually assaulted, that a gold ring was taken from her, and that her partner was compelled to transfer Rs 10,000 through UPI.

A case was subsequently registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the woman underwent medical examination at Silchar Medical College and Hospital. Given the gravity of the allegation, authorities kept the matter low-key while preliminary investigations commenced.

Three days later, on February 22, a local journalist reportedly contacted police sources seeking details of the bypass case. Within hours of making those enquiries, he was allegedly attacked by a group of men. Among those named in connection with the assault on the journalist was one Aurobindo Das. At the time, the two incidents appeared unrelated — the attack on Choudhury read, on its face, as an act of intimidation directed at a reporter pursuing a sensitive story.

The picture grew considerably more complicated on February 24, when police, as per sources, detained Arup Das in connection with the original February 19 sexual assault case. Arup Das is reported to hold the position of magazine secretary at Assam University. He is also the son of Aurobindo Das, the man named in the alleged assault on the journalist. Police have not yet confirmed whether Arup Das has been detained.

The convergence of names, dates, and familial relationships has since intensified speculation in Silchar and beyond. The question being asked, with increasing urgency, is whether the attack on Choudhury two days after he began inquiring into the bypass case was intended to discourage deeper reporting — and whether that attack and the subsequent detainment of his alleged assailant's son are events that ought to be read together rather than in isolation.

For their part, the police have drawn no such connection, at least not officially. Authorities have stated that the sexual assault case is being examined from multiple angles and that medical findings constitute only one component of a broader investigation. The assault on the journalist is being treated as an entirely separate matter. No final conclusions, police have emphasised, have been reached in either case. The public has been urged not to circulate unverified claims that could impede the investigations.

The absence of an official link between the two cases does not, however, appear to have settled the matter in public perception. The timeline — an assault alleged on February 19, a journalist attacked on February 22 after making enquiries about that assault, and a man detained on February 24 whose father stands accused of attacking that journalist — carries what many observers have described as troubling optics, whatever the eventual evidentiary picture may prove to be.

Whether the overlapping threads amount to coincidence or point to something more deliberate is now a question for investigators to resolve. What is no longer in question is that this case has grown well beyond the bounds of a single complaint filed on a bypass road on a February evening.