The family of the Class 4 girl who was allegedly raped and murdered while returning home from tuition in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, said that the police initially neglected their complaint when the victim did not return from tuition.
According to the victim's aunt, the girl went missing while coming back from the tuition on Friday.
“Her father tried to find her everywhere, but when he was not able to find her. After this, he went to the police station, but the police refused to listen to him and asked him to go to the Jayanagar Police station…The police neglected the matter,” she told news agency ANI.
The aunt also mentioned that the victim's body - which was found on the bank of the River Ganges in Kripakhali village on Saturday morning - had “several injuries on the body, and her limbs seemed to be broken”.
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What did the police say?
According to the Baruipur Superintendent of Police Palash Dhali, they lodged a complaint after her family approached them because the victim did not return home from her tuition until 8 pm.
{{/usCountry}}According to the Baruipur Superintendent of Police Palash Dhali, they lodged a complaint after her family approached them because the victim did not return home from her tuition until 8 pm.
{{/usCountry}}“We started the investigation on Friday itself…Our government is very serious about such cases, and the matter is being investigated,” he told ANI.
Following an initial investigation, the accused was arrested, and the girl's body was recovered from the riverbank.
Meanwhile, massive protests broke out in the city after the incident. However, the police said that the situation was now under control. “The body of a girl was found, after which there was anger among the local people. We have controlled the law and order situation,” Dhali said.
BJP slams TMC
The BJP blamed the ruling TMC for the “deteriorating law and order situation” in the state.
BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar expressed his shock over the tragic incident and wrote on X: “A Class IV student was brutally raped and murdered while returning from tuition in the Kripakhali area of Kultali Police Station. Villagers later found her body by the river. My question to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has failed to protect women, is: will there be no relief for the girls of Bengal even at the start of Devi Paksha? How many more Bengali girls will suffer this fate under your misrule?”
(With inputs from ANI)