In what looks like a rerun of the Imrana case, police have framed attempted rape charges against the absconding father-in-law of a woman while her husband and mother-in-law have been arrested at Denan village in east Midnapore district.
Anjum Begum and Abdullah Khan, second wife and son of the absconding 65-year-old man Feroze Khan, were arrested from their residence on August 24 night on the charge of torturing Abdullah's wife after the woman lodged a complaint with the police that Feroze tried to rape her on August 6 in the absence of her husband, police said on Saturday.
The two arrested persons harassed the woman as she had brought the matter to the notice of police, she complained.
The woman's parents first took up the matter with the police after she was taken to her parents' home in nearby Bhogpur village by some railway employees who saw her roaming near rail tracks at Kolaghat station with her one-year-old child on August 6 night.
However, as the family wanted to settle the matter at the village level, a meeting took place at a local primary school at Benan on August 18, which was attended by local leaders including Communist Party of India-Marxist panchayat member Golam Rasul.
However, the main accused Feroze denied the charges levelled against him.
He also denied his daughter-in-law's allegation that she had been subjected to rape and sexual misconduct by him during Abdullah's absence ever since his elder son's marriage two years' back, sources said.