A 46-year old woman, who was allegedly raped by three men in Bidur, Nuwakot, has accused police of letting off one of the perpetrators. The woman, who has arrived at the Capital to seek justice, has said that the man has been coercing her to take the money and not to press charge against him. “He says that there will be a serious consequence if I do not accept his offer,” said the woman, who is determined to put the man behind bars. The woman was allegedly raped by three men at her hotel almost a month ago. “The three men came to my hotel in the evening and ordered some drinks. It was at around 10 when I requested them to leave, they said that they wanted to lodge for the night. And when I told them that there was no lodging service, they pulled down the shutter, dragged me to a room downstairs, and forced themselves upon me,” she said. She escaped in the middle of the night and reached the local police station for help. Police arrested two of the suspects weeks after the incident. “The police did not arrest the third man. He has been threatening me to settle the case outside of the court,” the woman said. Police claim that they were investigating the case. “We have arrested two of the suspects and we are after the third one. Once we complete the investigation, we will take the case to the court,” said Sub Inspector Salam Singh Tamang. The woman, meanwhile, says after the incident, she is being vilified by some people as if it was her fault that she was raped. “They are raising questions about my character because I happen to be a single woman who runs a hotel,” she said. This is the second rape case of a single woman in two months. Last month a speech-impaired women was raped by Armed Police Force personnel in Kapilvastu. Women for Human Rights, Single Women Group has offered to help the woman bring all three men to justice. “We have a long history of single women being sexually exploited. Single women are being targeted as a result of the consensus, engendered by our patriarchal society, that a woman must have a man in her life to protect her, that she has a bad character if she is divorced, that she will give into every advance of men. Some men think that if they assault or abuse a single woman, she will take it quietly,” said Nirmala Dhungana, the group’s president.