West Bengal
Bengal rape incident: JP Nadda forms 5-member BJP fact finding team to visit Hanskhali
New Delhi/Kolkata/IBNS: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Jagat Prakash Nadda on Wednesday formed a five-member fact finding committee to visit Hanskhali in West Bengal's Nadia district, where a minor was allegedly raped by a Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader's son.
The BJP team includes Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh Rekha Verma, Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Baby Rani Maurya, Tamil Nadu MLA and national president of women's wing Vanathi Srinivasan, West Bengal MLA Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhary and Maharashtra NEC special invitee Kushbu Sunder.
According to reports, the minor girl in the Nadia district of south Bengal had joined the birthday party of local TMC leader Samar Gayali's son Brajagopal Gayali at his place on Apr 4 (Monday) and in the late evening, some locals brought her home with severe sickness.
Family members of the 14-year-old girl were also allegedly "threatened" not to take her to any government or private hospital. They were also advised to take the girl to a local "quack doctor".
Later on Apr 5 (Tuesday) early morning, the girl died at her home. Her family members alleged that she had been gang-raped by the TMC leader's son and his friends in the birthday party and she had died of excessive bleeding.
It was also alleged that her body was "cremated under pressure" with kerosene at a local 'unregistered' crematorium, without autopsy, medical test or even any death certificate.
A controversy was created by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who questioned whether the girl was "raped" or "was pregnant" or "had love affairs", drawing widespread criticism from political and common people though the civil society, dubbed as "intellectuals", maintained studdied silence.
Reacting to the incident, Banerjee, while speaking at a government programme, said, "The police are yet to understand the cause of her death. I had asked them. Will you call it rape or was she pregnant? Was it (the fallout of) a love affair?" "Have you enquired about these?"
Questioning her family why the complaint was lodged five days after the incident, Mamata Banerjee said, "The girl died on Apr 5, and the police complaint was registered on Apr 10! If they had a complaint, then why did not they lodge it immediately after the incident!"
She said, "The body has been cremated without informing anyone! Now how would the police investigate the matter!"
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