Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has found herself embroiled in yet another controversy since Monday, when she raised questions on the alleged gang rape of a minor in the state’s Nadia district earlier this month.
Slamming the media for reporting the incident as a case of alleged gangrape, Banerjee said the police still don’t know for sure what happened, but the media is constantly broadcasting that a minor has died after being raped.
“Has she been raped, or was she pregnant, or was it a love affair? Has the media enquired? I heard it was a case of love affair,” Banerjee said at an inauguration event in Kolkata.
She also turned to the state’s Director General of Police, Manoj Malviya, who was present with her at the event, and asked him whether it was a fact that the minor — who died following the alleged rape — and the accused — the son of a local Trinamool Congress leader — were in a “love affair”.
“The information I have, the girl died on 5 April and the police was informed on 10 April, but there was no complaint (before 10 April). Why wasn’t the police informed the same day?” asked the CM. “The body was cremated on the same day, and (as) a layperson I am saying this, where will the police find evidence?”
Drawing parallels with other states, Banerjee added “if a girl and boy fall in love, then it’s not in my control to stop them”.
“This is not Uttar Pradesh where I will start ‘love jihad’ programme,” she said, in reference to the BJP-ruled state’s law against forceful inter-faith conversions for marriage.
Banerjee’s statement was reminiscent of her dismissing a 2012 gangrape in Kolkata’s Park Street as “shajano ghatana” or fake — five people were convicted in the case later. Monday’s comments drew criticism from opposition leaders as well as activists, who termed it a case of “victim blaming”.
“What can be more shameful than a woman CM protecting the culprit because he is a TMC leader’s son and trivalising the rape of a girl in Hanskhali?” West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar wrote on social media.
What can be more shameful than a Women CM is protecting the culprit because he is a TMC leader’s son and trivalising the rape of girl in Nadia’s Hanskhali.@MamataOfficial should feel ashamed of herself. pic.twitter.com/e5gxNOltQ4
— Dr. Sukanta Majumdar (@DrSukantaBJP) April 11, 2022
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar has sought an urgent report on the case from Chief Secretary H.K. Dwivedi — latest by 13 April — after he received a deputation from Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari at Raj Bhavan Monday evening.
In a tweet Tuesday, the Governor said investigation in the case is “tainted & compromised when people in authority & constitutional position indicate judgmental stance”.
Criminal Investigation in shameful rape #Hanskhali leading to victim death is tainted & compromised when people in authority & constitutional position indicate judgmental stance. This against the law approach scuttles fair & independent probe as police is forced to toe such line.
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) April 12, 2022
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‘No death certificate or postmortem’
According to the minor’s family, the Class 9 student had gone to the house of local Trinamool Congress leader and Garapota Gram Panchayat member, Samar Goala, to attend his son Braja Gopal Goala’s birthday party.
“Our daughter was bleeding profusely and had severe abdominal pain after she came back from the party and before we could take her to hospital, she died,” the minor’s mother has been quoted as saying by the media.
“From the sequence of events and after talking to the people present at the party, we are sure she was gangraped,” the mother added.
According to the minor’s mother, she had rushed to a local quack for medicines when she found her daughter’s condition deteriorating, but the girl died by the time she returned. Her body was cremated in the wee hours of 6 April, and the family has alleged that locals forced them to do the last rites quickly.
An FIR was filed Saturday based on a complaint made by the minor’s father, invoking sections 375 (rape), 302 (murder), 204 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as well as provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, police said.
Nadia police arrested Braja Gopal Goala Sunday and produced him in court Monday. The 22-year-old has been sent to 14-day police custody. A second arrest — that of one of his friends, Prabhakar Poddar — was made Tuesday, based on the prime accused’s statement.
Sayak Das, Superintendent of Police for Ranaghat, told reporters Monday they have recorded statements of five witnesses under Section 164 of the Indian Penal Code. “We have recorded the secret statements of the victim’s mother, her relatives, a crematorium worker and a doctor today. There is no death certificate or any postmortem that was done. But we are examining witnesses,” he added.
‘Victim blaming and victim shaming’
Meanwhile, CM Mamata Banerjee has drawn flak for raising questions on the incident.
“By saying the victim was pregnant or had a love affair, she kept an exit route for the administration and the perpetrators. As a chief minister, she knows the law of the land better than we do and I am sure she knows even if the girl was in love with a boy or even if she was pregnant, this counts as aggravated sexual assault under (provisions of) the POCSO Act,” said activist Ratnaboli Roy.
“Most importantly, the culture of consent seems to be completely absent, paving way for toxic masculinity,” she added, calling it a case of “victim blaming and victim shaming”.
Filmmaker and activist Anindita Sarbadhicari also recalled the 2012 Park Street gangrape case, which the chief minister had then called a “fabricated case to tarnish the state government’s image”.
“The CM has once again put the victim in the dock. The message that goes to the preparators of crime against women in this state is that there is no cost of crime. She is the chief minister and home minister of the state, and this kind of statement is extremely disheartening. And if she’s saying action is being taken, it is only lip service after such a depressing comment from a woman,” said Sarbadhicari.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Political violence, internal factions — Mamata Banerjee’s TMC is its own opposition in Bengal
Source: The Print
