E-Paper
Relatives of deceased 15-year-old held for rape, murder in Bengal’s Ranaghat
On April 14, the girl was found hanging at her aunt’s residence where she had gone to celebrate Charak festival. The arrests were made on Saturday, a day after the minor’s father filed a complaint against the accused alleging rape and murder, police said.
Days after a 15-year-old girl was suspected to have died by suicide at Ranaghat in West Bengal’s Nadia district, police have arrested her aunt, brother-in-law and the latter’s uncle for rape and murder.
On April 14, the girl was found hanging at her aunt’s residence where she had gone to celebrate Charak festival. The arrests were made on Saturday, a day after the minor’s father filed a complaint against the accused alleging rape and murder, police said.
Initially, the police suspected it to be a case of suicide and booked the minor’s aunt and her family for abetment. A postmortem was done at Ranaghat sub-divisional hospital on Friday.
“The girl’s father brought allegations of rape and murder on Friday and fresh charges were filed by the police. A second postmortem was done on Saturday,” said Sayak Das, superintendent of police, Ranaghat.
The second autopsy was approved by the Ranaghat court.
The police arrested the girl’s aunt, her cousin’s husband and the latter’s uncle on Saturday and booked them for rape and murder under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
On Saturday, the accused were produced before the Ranaghat court, which remanded them in police custody.
The girl’s father told reporters that he felt suspicious on seeing the body. “I could not see any apparent sign of hanging. Moreover, it was claimed that she had hung herself from a ceiling fan. The fan was placed way too high for someone of her height to reach,” he said.
The case took a political turn with the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) alleging that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Nadia district hatched a conspiracy to malign the government.
The TMC made the allegation after an audio clip of a purported telephonic conversation between two men surfaced on social media on Saturday.
In the purported clip, a man could be heard saying the incident has to be made an issue for the TMC and pressure must be created on the police. “We have to make the family change the complaint,” one man could be heard saying in the clip.
HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio clip.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “This is clearly a conspiracy by the BJP to malign the government. The clip must be analysed and probed.”
Rejecting the allegations, BJP’s Nadia south unit president Partha Sarathi Chatterjee said, “Those who can be heard in the audio clip do not belong to our party.”
Meanwhile, police arrested a third suspect in the alleged gang rape and death of a 14-year-old girl at Hanskhali in Nadia district. The case is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
On Saturday, third accused Ranjit Mullick was arrested by CBI. Mullick was produced before the Ranaghat court on Sunday and remanded in CBI custody. Earlier, police had arrested main accused Brajagopal Gayali, the son of local TMC panchayat member Samarendra Gayali, and his friend Prabhakar Poddar.
The alleged gang rape took place on the night of April 4. The victim, a Class 9 student, died the next morning, allegedly due to excessive bleeding, police said.
