Bengaluru, Jul 20 (IANS): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has begun the probe in connection with a sensational gang-rape case involving a woman from Bangladesh, in Bengaluru. The NIA has lodged a separate FIR which involves human trafficking and illegal border crossing.

Earlier, east division police arrested 13 persons in connection with the incident and submitted 1,000 plus pages of charge sheet in the case on July 6.

Taking the issue of human trafficking from Bangladesh, which came up in the investigation of the gang-rape seriously, the central Home ministry handed over the case to NIA for further investigations.

The NIA lodged an FIR in this connection and began the probe. The police had submitted 1,019 pages of charge sheet in a short period of 5 weeks after the case came out in public domain through a video which went viral.

Police Commissioner Kamal Panth had appreciated the cops and announced Rs 1 lakh cash reward. The cop started investigating the incident after registering a suo motu case when the video of the incident went viral in the country and abroad in the month of April.

The police traced the victim in Kerala and brought her to the city on May 30. The police had arrested five accused including a woman seen in the video, in the month of June. Two of the accused were shot at on June 2, when they tried to escape.

The victim had stated that she was an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh who managed to sneak into India. She also revealed that accused were business partners and she supplied girls to them. There was a misunderstanding on financial matters and the accused then gang-raped her, tortured her and video-graphed the whole incident.