Relatives of deceased 15-yr-old held for rape, murder in Bengal

THE ARRESTS WERE MADE ON SATURDAY, A DAY AFTER THE MINOR’S FATHER FILED COMPLAINT AGAINST ACCUSED

KOLKATA: Days after a 15-yearold 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 subdivisional 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, superinover, tendent 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. Moreday. 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 hatched a conspiracy to malign the government. The TMC alleged 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.

TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “This is clearly a conspiracy by the BJP to malign the government. The clip must be analysed and probed.”

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.”