BJP fact-finding team meets rape victim’s kin

KOLKATA: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fact finding team Friday met the family members of the minor girl in Hanshkhali in Nadia district, who died after being allegedly gang raped earlier in the month, and slammed the state administration for failing to ensure the safety and security of women in the state.

The team members spoke to the family members and the locals, party sources said. They will submit their report to BJP national president J P Nadda, who formed the fact finding committee earlier this week.

It comprised of the party’s vice-president Rekha Verma, national president of BJP Mahila Morcha Vanathi Srinivasan, party leader Khushbu Sundar and West Bengal MLA Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury, the sources said.

“Atrocities against women in West Bengal is beyond words. A minor girl was brutally raped and murdered. This proves the administration has failed to ensure the safety and security of women. This is a shameful incident,” Verma told reporters after meeting the family members.

The 14-year-old girl had died after being allegedly gang raped by the son of a ruling TMC panchayat leader at Hanskhali on April 4.

Her family lodged the police complaint on April 10 and claimed that the girl’s body was snatched away and cremated. The accused family had also been allegedly threatened with dire consequences by the family of the accused. Calcutta High Court had handed over the investigation to the CBI.

Reacting to Verma’s comment, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh dubbed the allegations as “baseless”.

“The women of the state are safe and secure in West Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. The BJP is quick to send teams to West Bengal but never bothers to send similar teams to Uttar Pradesh, where rape cases were reported from Hathras and Unnao,” he added.

On Thursday, CBI sleuths on broke open the lock and searched the residence of the prime accused in the alleged gang rape rape of a minor girl at Hanskhali, who subsequently died, an officer of the probe body said.

The house is where the alleged crime was committed on April 4 and the investigating agency collected samples from there before locking the house, he said.

The CBI sleuths were accompanied by personnel of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and the entire search operation and evidence collection were videographed, he said.

The search continued till late on Thursday night due to a power cut in the area.

TEAM SLAMMED THE TMC-LED ADMINISTRATION FOR ‘FAILING TO ENSURE THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF WOMEN IN BENGAL’