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After 'out at 12:30 am' shocker on rape case, Mamata says 'words distorted'
Mamata Banerjee's remarks about the student leaving the campus at night had triggered outrage in the state earlier today.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused the media of distorting her words after criticism of her comments on the alleged gangrape of a medical student in Durgapur.
"The media distorted my words. You ask me a question, I answer it, and then you distort it. Do not try this kind of politics..." the chief minister said, according to ANI.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee's remarks about the student leaving the campus at night triggered outrage in the state.
The student, who hails from Odisha's Jaleswar, was allegedly gang-raped after she stepped outside the campus of the private medical college in Durgapur with her friend. To be sure, the crime was committed at around 8 pm on Friday and the survivor’s father said his daughter’s classmates called him up around 9.30 pm. Four persons have been held in connection with the case.
“She was studying in a private medical college... all the private medical are whose responsibility? how they came out in the night at 12:30?... it happened, so far I know, in the forest area... investigation is on,” Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday.
She added that while she is shocked to see the incident, private medical colleges need to take care of their students, “especially the girl child” who should “not be allowed to come out” at night.
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Agnimitra Paul had strongly condemned Banerjee's remark, calling it shameful and regressive.
“We have a Taliban government in Afghanistan, and we have Mamata Banerjee's government in West Bengal,” Paul said.
Former Bengal BJP president and Union minister of state Sukanta Majumdar demanded Mamata Banerjee’s resignation after her remarks.
“From the highest echelons of administration while directly handling the home department herself (serving as her own police minister) and above all, being a woman, her remark is utterly deplorable and shameful!” Majumdar wrote in a social media post while BJP leaders held agitations in Durgapur.
