On Orders, Police Practically Played Goons: CPI(M)
By Debasish Chakraborty
IT was a murder most foul. It was a protest most heart rending.
Kolkata erupted in protest on the first day of the New Year after a
girl, twice gangraped and then burnt to death, breathed her last in a city
hospital. The episode, as if taken from a horror film, exposed the cruelty of a
regime that is ruling West Bengal now.
The girl, daughter of a taxi driver, came with her parents from
Samastipur, Bihar, to Kolkata with the hope that her life would change for
the better. But that was not to be. She was only 16 years old. She was first
gangraped on October 25 in Madhyamgram, a crowded northern suburb of Kolkata in
North 24 Parganas district. As she and her parents were coming back after
lodging the complaint with the police, she was kidnapped along the way and
tortured again by the same gang of anti-socials. It was horrible enough under
normal circumstances, but Ms Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal has ceased
to be a normal state. The perpetrators were goons sheltered by the ruling
Trinamul Congress (TMC) and they repeatedly threatened, harassed and humiliated
her family. Under pressure from the local people and the women’s organisations
in particular, the police was forced to arrest six of the culprits.
The threat of dire consequences, however, continued through the ruling
party’s local activists. The poor taxi driver had to leave the place and hire a
home in the airport locality. But the friends of the culprits, through the TMC
network, got the address of the new shelter and harassment again started. The
family was pressurised to withdraw the case. Or, as has been proved by now, the
planning was to annihilate the main witness of the crime --- the girl herself.
On December 23, a group of hooligans raided the house when both of her
parents were outside. An altercation followed. Soon after, fire was seen from
the house and her neighbours rushed in. Meanwhile, her mother also rushed back.
The girl was heard shouting, “Mother, they will not allow us to live. You come
along with me; Oh, my mother!”
The girl was admitted to R G Kar Hospital with more than 70 percent burn
injuries. Earlier, it was told that she had tried to commit suicide in the face
of continuous harassment. But finally it was learnt that she was put on fire by
the goons. On December 31, 2013, she lost the battle and died.
This was thus a clear case of murder ---premeditated, most foul, in cold
blood.
The girl, in her dying statement, told the police that the same men who
had allegedly raped her, had set her ablaze. This was admitted by the police after
three days --- in the face of a strong public opinion and steadfastness of the
girl’s father.
"In her dying declaration before Dr Sudipta Singh and investigating
officer Saidullah Sana at the R G Kar hospital, she said two persons, who were
co-accused in the rape case, set her on fire," said additional deputy
commissioner (airport division), Nimbala Santosh Uttamrao, on the day of the
funeral. He said the police have now added the murder charge to the case.
The girl’s father also said the accused tried to burn her alive because
she had complained against them. He was upset, however, because “the police sat
over her dying statement and did not book the accused for murder.” Her father
said she was set afire on December 23 at the rented house in the airport area
where the family was forced to shift from Madhyamgram after threats by the
accused.
It is alleged that even in the state run R G Kar hospital, the girl was
not treated in any proper manner. Continuous request to refer her to SSKM Hospital,
having a modern burn unit, was refused. It seemed that some forces from
the high up were working behind the scene.
The ordeal did not end with the death either. After spontaneous protests
around the hospital and road blockades, the girl’s body was taken to her house.
It was announced that the body would be kept in a mortuary and a funeral rally
will take place on January 1. The Taximen’s Union, affiliated to the CITU,
had called the rally and decided that it would march towards Raj Bhavan, the
governor’s house. But the police perpetrated a nasty, uncivilised
attack when the body was on its way to mortuary. Police jeeps cordoned the
hearse and forcefully took the body to the crematorium. However, this
unlawful act proved futile as the parents of the girl refused to accompany the
police and refused to hand over the death certificate. The body was kept for
eight hours in the crematorium, cordoned by the police, and the whole state
witnessed through news channels the inhuman behaviour of the state
administration on the eve of the New Year.
Meanwhile, another gruesome episode unfolded in the girl’s house. District
police officials, including the police superintendent, raided the house. They
threatened the girl’s father with dire consequences if they did not hand over
the death certificate. Local TMC hooligans accompanied the police and gheraoed
the house. "The police officials threatened me and asked me to leave
the state and return to Bihar with the body. The police officials and
some local toughs also threatened that if I did not, they would stop me from
driving my taxi," said the victim's father to the media. He even reported
that the police officers threatened to kill him by firing. The parents reported
their ordeal to the governor, M K Narayanan, on January 1.
But all these terror tactics failed because of resolute determination of
a working class family who refused to let her daughter get a grotesque
farewell. The police was forced to bring the body back to the house. The police
then accompanied the parents to the crematorium again, in the early hours of
the morning, with the intention that everything should be ‘hushed up’ before
the people become alert. But again, their design was foiled by the girl’s
father. He insisted that the body would have to be taken to the CITU office
first. The news spread and people began to gather in front of the crematorium.
CITU leaders, including Shyamal Chakraborty and Dipak Dasgupta, and AIDWA
leaders also rushed there and after a brief clash with the police the body was
taken to the CITU state office.
The body was kept there and thousands gathered to pay their respect ---
in fact their last love to a sister who suffered a brutal death. Workers,
students, youths, women, intellectuals assembled and patiently waited. Finally,
the rally started with small congested steps from the West Bengal state
office of the CITU at around 4 p m and then every confident footsteps of this
huge procession made her reborn every single moment they marched. The
procession ended at the Esplanade. Then she was taken to the crematorium, with
her parents and near and dear ones accompanying her through this span of the
journey. But the stretch from the CITU office to the Esplanade made many feel
so deeply like her parents, brothers and sisters that they refused to leave her
half the way. They are all determined to make her win in this battle of justice
and dignity now. The rally was silent, but the anger reverberated in the sky of
the New Year.
The leader of the opposition in the assembly, Suryakanta Mishra, while
participating in the rally, said, "Soon after Tuesday night’s incident
when police held up the body and tormented the victim’s family, I had a word
with the home secretary. I told him that instead of standing beside the
victim’s family, the police are practically playing the role of goons,"
Mishra said.
"We believe that without orders from the top the police could not
have acted the way they did. The police are even trying to downplay the
incident, as is evident from the fact that they registered the second rape
complaint as molestation. What is striking is the silence of the chief minister
on the issue. She only gave her wishes for the New Year but conveniently
sidestepped the brutal incident," Mishra added.
"The victim did not receive proper treatment in hospital. The
health department should be held accountable for the death. The goons wanted to
burn her alive and the police wanted to cremate her body despite objections
from the family. Such activities are only encouraging the criminals," said
CPI(M) state secretary Biman Basu.
