The court observed that monetary compensation would not redeem her loss but admitted that it had no other way of redressing her grievance for what happened on the night of February 26-27.

The High Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Prabha Shankar Mishra and Justice Barin Ghosh, directed that the trial in the case should be completed within six months. It also directed the Centre and the West Bengal Government to take care of the victim's travel and accommodation during her appearance for the trial.

Giving its verdict, the court said Article 21 provided for right to life ``which included the right to safety of life whether at home or in a public place''. Violations of the right entitled the victim to compensation.

The woman hadtold officials of the Bangladesh deputy high commission while in hospital that the media glare had made her plight worse and she did not wish to return to her country.

Those who had visited her at the SSKM Hospital here had found the woman almost out of her mind and wanting to die. ``We had to do two things simultaneously -- try to talk the hapless woman out of her suicidal mood and keep the media away from her,'' an official of the deputy high commission told The Indian Express.

Khatun, a member of the Union Board of Laksam in Bangladesh's Comilla district, had come to India on a pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif. As she waited at the Howrah station for her train the next day, six men -- five of them Eastern Railway employees -- offered to arrange a room for her at the Ashok Yatri Niwas for the night. She got the room but a nightmare followed. The five men apparently returned drunk and raped her. She was then taken to another place at Pathuriaghata, a short distance from the station complex, where shewas subjected to another gangrape. All the accused are in judicial custody now and the five railway employees have been suspended.

The case highlighted a well-known fact -- that the Howrah railway station complex and the Yatri Niwas in particular are taken over by criminals at night. They are aided and abetted by some railway employees and policemen.