KOLKATA: A mother died while trying to prevent her daughter from molestation on the roof-top of her house late on Tuesday night at Bagnan in Howrah district. One of the two accused was identified as the husband of a TMC-dominated gram panchayat member. Pushed off the staircases by one of the accused, the homemaker succumbed to her injuries on the way to a nearby hospital, according to police.
The police have arrested Kush Bera, the husband of the gram panchayat member and his accomplice.
Later, local residents staged a demonstration. BJP MP Locket Chatterjee met the girl and her family.
"I went to the roof of our house around 11.30 pm on Tuesday. Suddenly, someone pulled my leg and I slumped on the roof. Another person pressed my mouth with his hands. I gave a fight and managed to remove his hands and screamed for help. My mother ran towards the roof and suddenly one of them pushed her off the staircase. She fell off and became unconscious. The two jumped off the roof and fled. I identified as one of them whom I used to call Kush uncle and the other person was also known to me as he resides in the same locality," said the girl.
A preliminary investigation revealed the accused duo knew that the teenager used to go to the roof-top of her house to play video games on her cellphone. "It appears, they climbed up a tree and reached the rooftop. The girl complained that one of the suspects had waylaid her recently and asked where she was going and where she resides. We suspect they followed her for the past few days," said a police officer.
BJP MP from Hooghly Locket Chatterjee, who met the girl, alleged the incident showed how women were being targeted by the ruling party’s satraps. "This is a reflection of lawlessness across the state. This is hard to imagine that a ruling party’s local leader would hide on the rooftop with another person to molest a teenage girl," she said.