KOLKATA: A five-member fact-finding team of the Trinamool Congress on Sunday visited the Prayagraj crime spot where five members of a family were murdered and set ablaze. The team alleged that at least two women were sexually assaulted before they were murdered.
Introducing Sunil Yadav, who lost his family members which include his infant daughter, Dola Sen, central president of TMC’s national trade union wing, said the accused had sexually assaulted two women before setting the house on fire.
"His parents, differently-abled sister, wife and infant daughter were brutally murdered. Before the house was set on fire, his wife and sister were sexually assaulted. The incident bears testimony to the critical law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh under the BJP’s double engine government,’’ said Dola Sen.
Apart from Dola Sen, the team comprised former MP Mamatabala Thakur, RTI activist Saket Gokhale, Uttar Pradesh Congress leader who joined the TMC Lalitesh Tripathi and Bengal minister Jyotsna Mandi.
The members of the TMC team interacted with the family members and relatives of the victims.
The BJP had earlier sent a fact-finding team following Birbhum’s Rampurhat massacre, in which nine persons, including a child, were charred to death and alleged gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl by the son of a local TMC leader.
Citing the visit of BJP’s fact-finding team to Rampurhat, the TMC supremo and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had alleged it was aimed to influence the CBI probe into the incident and threatened to organise statewide demonstrations.
Slamming the BJP following the Prayagraj incident, TMC’s state general secretary Kunal Ghosh asked whether the saffron camp would now send a fact-finding team there? ‘’What happened in Prayagraj is unthinkable. This is barbarism. Will the BJP now send a fact-finding team to Prayagraj?’’ he asked.
Taking a jibe at the TMC’s decision to send a fact-finding team to Uttar Pradesh, BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumdar said, ‘’Mamata Banerjee should focus on her own state. Everyone knows what happened in Rampurhat and Hanskhali. Instead of sending a team to UP, she should ensure law and order in Bengal.’’