West Bengal: BJP slams TMC govt over gang-rape, murder of Dalit girl in North Dinajpur district

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 22 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday strongly hit out at the TMC-led West Bengal government over the alleged gang-rape and murder of a Dalit girl in North Dinajpur district’s Kaliagunj.

The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state assembly Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the police didn’t allow the BJP MLAs to meet the victim’s family. He also accused the police of “diluting” the evidence.
Taking to Twitter, Adhikari said, “The @BJP4Bengal MLAs weren’t allowed to visit the victim’s family & were involuntarily taken to a Police Station & made to sit there forcefully, because how else would @WBPolice suppress information & dilute evidence. They’re dragging the victim’s body in such undignified manner”.

The Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped and murdered in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal. On Thursday, the locals found the body of the minor, who had gone missing. On Friday, locals staged a protest demanding justice for her.

SP Dinajpur Sana Akhtar told ANI that the victim’s body was found in Kaliyaganj, after which the police swung into action and arrested the two accused.

“We received information that a girl was missing since Thursday night. We started conducting searches at all railway stations, and bus stands. Later, a body was found in Kailyaganj. Two people have been arrested based on the complaint given by the deceased’s family.

The police also fired tear gas shells and restored to lathi-charge against the protesters who were demonstrating over the incident.

“Police had to use tear gas at the protesters to recover the victim’s body from them to ensure an early post-mortem so that important evidence is not lost. We have also formed a medical board to investigate the matter properly. The incident will be properly investigated,” the SP added.

Further investigation is underway in the case.

Earlier in the day, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) also took cognisance of the matter and said it would send a fact-finding team to conduct an inquiry.

Taking to Twitter, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo said, “The NCPCR has taken cognizance of News Reports of gang rape and murder of a Dalit girl child in Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur of West Bengal. A fact-finding team will be visiting there to conduct an inquiry.”

A statement issued by the NCPCR chief office read, “We have received information about the gang-rape incident and murder of a girl child in North Dinajpur in West Bengal. We have received a lot of information from many sources. It is a heinous murder and we are going to investigate it. I myself will go to North Dinajpur with my team”.

It added, “Our team will reach there tomorrow. We will investigate this incident by going there tomorrow evening. We are trying to contact the government through the governor’s house to cooperate with us in the investigation. This is a case of murder of a girl child and getting her justice.”

NCPCR also alleged that the Chief Secretary of the state and the North Dinajpur Collector are not responding despite the body informing them about the incident.

The statement further stated that punishing the culprits is the only way to stop such incidents in West Bengal.