KOLKATA: A BJP fact-finding team Friday met the family members of the minor girl in Hanshkhali in Nadia district, who died after being allegedly gang-raped earlier in the month, and slammed the state administration for failing to ensure the safety and security of women in the state.
The team members spoke to the family members and the locals, party sources said. They will submit their report to BJP national president J P Nadda, who formed the fact-finding committee earlier this week.
The team comprised of the party's vice-president Rekha Verma, national president of BJP Mahila Morcha Vanathi Srinivasan, party leader Khushbu Sundar and West Bengal MLA Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury, the sources said.
"Atrocities against women in West Bengal are beyond words. A minor girl was brutally raped and murdered. This proves the administration has failed to ensure the safety and security of women. This is a shameful incident," Verma told reporters after meeting the family members.
Echoing her, Mitra Chowdhury said the team spoke to the mother of the victim and criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for making "irresponsible statements" on it.
"The chief minister who is herself a woman has been making irresponsible statements instead of ensuring that the victim's family gets justice. Is this expected from a chief minister? The victim's mother narrated the family's ordeal. The kind of threat and intimidation the girl's family members faced is unimaginable," she said.
The 14-year-old girl had died after being allegedly gang raped by the son of a ruling TMC panchayat leader at Hanskhali on April 4. Her family lodged the police complaint on April 10 and claimed that the girl's body was snatched away and cremated.
The victim's family had also alleged they were threatened with dire consequence by the accused's family.
Calcutta High Court had handed over the investigation to CBI. Reacting to Verma's comment, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh dubbed the allegations as "baseless".
"The women of the state are safe and secure in West Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. BJP is quick to send teams to West Bengal but never bothers to send similar teams to Uttar Pradesh, where rape cases were reported from Hathras and Unnao," he added.
Ghosh said the fact-finding team intended to malign the state and influence the ongoing CBI probe.
"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.
Some incidents have taken place and they are blaming the TMC for it.
It seems they are yet to digest their defeat in the last West Bengal assembly polls," he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on April 11 publicly expressed doubt over the cause of the minor girl's death, which her family attributed to gang rape.
She had claimed that the victim was in a relationship with the prime accused and had wondered whether she was pregnant, a comment which opposition parties strongly criticised.
Banerjee had also wondered of she died after being slapped by someone.
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