Hanskhali gang-rape: BJP forms fact-finding panel; CPM hits out at Mamata
KOLKATA: The BJP has formed a “fact-finding committee” comprising five women leaders for showcasing the Hanskhali gang-rape and death of a 14-year-old girl as a bigger issue.
The panel members — BJP’s vice-president and MP Rekha Verma, UP minister Baby Rani Maurya, Tamil Nadu MLA and BJP’s women wing head Vanathi Srinivasan, national executive member Khushbhu Sundar and Bengal MLA Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury — will submit a report to BJP chief JP Nadda.
“Our party doesn’t want to miss the opportunity to use the issue as a political tool against the Mamata Banerjee government, as she keeps talking about empowerment of women and welfare works done by her government,’’ said a senior BJP leader.
The girl, a class 9 student, died after she was allegedly gang-raped at a birthday party at the house of the accused on April 5.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently triggered a row after expressing doubt about the cause of the girl's death, attributed to gang-rape by her family.
She said the minor and one of the arrested accused, the son of a local Trinamool Congress leader, were in a relationship and wondered whether she was pregnant.
TMC state general secretary and spokesperson Kunal Ghosh sought to know if the party would have formed a similar panel if the case had happened in some BJP-ruled state.
"Whenever such incidents take place in Bengal, they (BJP) form a fact-finding committee. This fact-finding committee aims to set guidelines for the central agency on how the probe should be conducted and how to accuse the state government. The BJP did something similar after the recent Birbhum incident," Ghosh stated.
Continuing his tirade against the saffron camp, Ghosh said, "No one is trying to shield the culprits. We have always condemned such heinous crimes. But we would like to know if the BJP would send similar teams to Uttar Pradesh, where rape cases were reported from Hathras and Unnao. They would never do so," Ghosh said.
Dubbing his allegations as "baseless", BJP MLA Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury, one of the members of the panel, claimed that chief ministers in saffron party-ruled states asked law enforcers to act without bias.
"Allegations of influencing the CBI are baseless. As for sending teams to BJP-ruled states, chief ministers there ask the police to act impartially, unlike in West Bengal, where the role of the police is to shield the culprits," she said.
Meanwhile, leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP, was injured on Wednesday when an iron barricade fell on his feet during a law violation programme of the party in Birbum district of the state, police sources said.
Adhikari was leading the law violation programme outside the BDO office at Suri to protest against alleged rising atrocities against women.
According to sources, the police had put up iron barricades outside the BDO office to stop the agitators from forcibly entering the premises.
During a scuffle between party activists and the police, one of the barricades fell on Adhikari's feet injuring him.
"He was taken to a nearby hospital," a local BJP leader said.
Carrying posters and placards, BJP activists raised slogans against the Trinamool Congress government and demanded immediate arrest of those involved in rape cases across the state.
Following the injury of Adhikari, the agitation programme was called off.
Demanding a public apology from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her remarks on the alleged rape and death of a girl at Hanskhali in Nadia district, activists of the CPI(M)'s women wing on Wednesday staged a blockade on a thoroughfare.
Party leader Kaninika Bose (Ghosh) told reporters that she and other members of 'Paschim Bango Ganotantrik Mahila Samity' wanted to stage a symbolic protest on the Rashbehari Avenue-S P Mukherjee road crossing but "the partisan police" bundled them into prison vans.
"It is regrettable that a woman chief minister can make such insensitive comments concerning a young girl who had to experience such brutal torture.
She has insulted every woman of Bengal, mother of every school-going daughter by her utterances.
Our demonstration at Rashbehari Avenue crossing is part of a statewide agitation against the incident."
A police officer said the demonstrators were first asked to disperse, but when the protesters refused to budge they were forced to board the prison van.
The agitators were released later in the day, he said.
Banerjee had on April 11 expressed doubt over the cause of the minor girl's demise, which her family attributed to gang rape, and wondered if the Class 9 student of died after being slapped by someone.
Claiming that the victim had an affair with the accused, a TMC leader's son, Banerjee wondered if she was pregnant.
The girl was allegedly raped on April 4 at a birthday party at the house of a TMC panchayat official's son in Hanskhali area of Nadia district, according to a police complaint filed by her parents.
She bled to death hours later, the complaint said.
Two persons, including the TMC leader's son, have been arrested thus far.
The Calcutta High Court has recently ordered a CBI probe into the incident.
The students' wing of the CPI(M) had on Tuesday took out a rally in the city, seeking unconditional apology from the CM for her remarks.
"Despite being a woman, the chief minister has made a crass and insensitive comment about a 14-year old girl who was subjected to brutal sexual assault leading to her death at Hanskhali in Nadia district. We demand that she offer unconditional apology in public to all women in the state," a spokesperson of the SFI had said.
(With PTI Inputs)