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Bengal school girl’s murder: Mob ransacks suspect’s house, VHP calls for bandh
The body of the 17-year-old Class 11 student in school uniform was found by local people at a desolate place in the Matigara area of north Bengal’s Siliguri on Monday
The alleged rape and murder of a Class 11 school student in the Matigara area of north Bengal’s Siliguri on Monday has triggered protests in the region with a mob ransacking the house of the prime suspect, Md Abbas, 22, who was arrested hours after the crime, on Wednesday. The house of some of his neighbours were also not spared, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has called for a 12-hour local bandh on Thursday.
“A large police contingent had to be deployed to disperse the mob. VHP activists clashed with the police in several areas,” the police officer added.
The murder of the 17-year-old student has triggered condemnation in the entire hilly region. The student was in school uniform when her body was found by local people at a desolate place in the Matigara area. Preliminary investigation indicated that she was killed during an attempt of sexual assault, Abhishek Gupta, deputy commissioner of police, Siliguri, said on Tuesday.
Abbas was arrested late on Monday night from his home at the local Lenin Colony.
People staged a demonstration outside Siliguri court on Tuesday and heckled the accused when he was being taken to the court.
Several organisations in Siliguri, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and other parts of north Bengal are organising rallies demanding exemplary punishment for the accused, who is remanded in police custody.
Anit Thapa, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), Raju Bista, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Darjeeling and several other politicians have demanded a fast police investigation.
Bista on Wednesday shared a video on X (formerly known as Twitter) and said, “Extremely disturbing to see WB Police personnel target press & assault them for covering the protest in Siliguri,against the murder of a school student in Siliguri.Is this how Mamata Banerjee Govt hopes to silence the news about protests against the brutal murder of our daughter?”
Akhilesh Chaturvedi, Siliguri police commissioner, said: “The post mortem report of the victim is yet to come. Continuous law and order problem is hampering the investigation.”
“The accused smashed the victim’s head with a brick which was recovered from the scene of crime,” Gupta said.
Abbas was arrested after police studied footages caught on security cameras in the area. He claimed during interrogation that he and the victim got acquainted a few weeks ago but the investigation officers and some teachers from her school told HT that they doubted his claim.
HT saw some of the CCTV footages.
One of these showed the accused riding his bicycle alone while another footage, collected from a different location, showed the victim riding pillion. HT cannot verify the authenticity of the video.
A teacher from the girl’s school said: “The victim was walking towards her home after school with another girl student who told us that the suspect was following them and teasing them.”
“The victim was alone after the second girl took a diversion near City Centre and walked towards her home,” the teacher added.
