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Hanskhali gang rape victim’s family can seek protection from Bengal govt: HC
The Calcutta high court told the West Bengal government to decide on a request for protection once the family of the 14-year-old girl who was raped and killed in Hanskhali files a request.
KOLKATA: The family of the 14-year-old girl who died on April 5 after being raped at Hanskhali in Bengal’s Nadia district has been allowed by the Calcutta high court to seek protection from the state government.
In its ruling on a petition filed last week, the bench of chief justice Prakash Srivastava and justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj on Wednesday said the family can seek protection under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018, and the authorities will have to provide them security till a decision is taken on their request.
The bench earlier on April 12 ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the crime.
“Having regard to the nature of allegation which have been made in the application it is necessary to extend protection to the members of the family as also witnesses of the incident. Hence, we permit the filing of the witness protection application before the competent authority as specified in Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 and on receipt of such application the competent authority is directed to take a decision and pass appropriate order for witness protection, proportionate to the threat perception, in accordance with the Scheme, without any unnecessary delay,” said Wednesday’s court order, a copy of which was seen by HT.
“Till the said application is decided, the concerned authority will extend full protection to the witnesses and family members of the victim and will also ensure suitable psychiatric/ psychological treatment to them to come out of trauma,” the order added.
Local Trinamool Congress (TMC) panchayat member Samarendra Gayali’s son, Brajagopal, has been arrested along with his friends, Prabhakar Poddar and Ranjit Mullick. The alleged gang rape took place on the night of April 4 at the TMC leader’s home.
The victim, a class 9 student, was invited by Brajagopal to his birthday party. She died the next morning, allegedly due to excessive bleeding.
The victim’s parents alleged that she was forced to drink alcohol before being raped. Her father also alleged that Brajagopal forcefully cremated the body and threatened to kill him if he informed the police.
The victim was cremated in a village crematorium without any death certificate and post mortem.
The CBI team has visited the local crematorium at least thrice to collect samples from the site where the body was cremated on April 5.
“Brajagopal Gayali held a gun at my chest and took away my daughter’s body to cremate her within an hour of her death. They did not even let me leave the house,” the victim’s father told the media last week.
Brajagopal was arrested on April 10 by the Nadia district police. Poddar was arrested on April 12, hours before the high court ordered the CBI probe. The CBI arrested Mullick, the third suspect, last week.
A fact-finding team formed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president J P Nadda visited Hanskhali and submitted its report on Wednesday. It suggested that the victim might have been burnt alive since no doctor had examined her or declared her dead.
The allegations by the young girl’s family triggered a furore, particularly after chief minister Mamata Banerjee suggested that the victim and the principal accused were having an affair and it was public knowledge in the village.
On April 11, Banerjee targeted the media for highlighting the arrest of the TMC panchayat leader’s son.
“I talked to the police. Even police do not know till now how she died. I asked the police whether they think this was rape? Or, was she pregnant? Or, was it a love affair?” she said at a government event in Kolkata.
The victim’s parents – whose confidential statements were recorded by a magistrate at the Nadia district court on April 11 - dismissed the chief minister’s statements and said their child was not pregnant.
