Kolkata: As protests over the R.G. Kar case continue to sweep across West Bengal, the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in the Joynagar Kultali area of South 24 Parganas has raised further concerns about severe police and administrative negligence.
The child’s body was discovered on Saturday (October 5) at just a stone’s throw away from the local Mahishamari police station. She was last seen heading home after visiting her father, a vegetable vendor, at the local market. The family has accused the police of wasting critical time arguing over jurisdiction after the girl was reported missing on Friday evening.
“We didn’t get any help from the police. We searched for her for the entire night and finally found my daughter’s body from a pond early in the morning. Had the police acted, she could have been saved!” said the victim’s father.
Shockingly, the girl’s cousin, a 15-year-old girl, was also raped a few years ago. She later died by suicide, allegedly due to intimidation by the culprits and the police.
Joynagar police station. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar
The girl’s aunt told The Wire, “My 15-year-old daughter was raped and I went to the police many times during the lockdown. The police took money and told me to keep quiet. After that, my daughter committed suicide out of shame. My daughter, my brother’s daughter, died. Will the rest of the girls survive? Everyone in this state better die.”
Local residents alleged that the girl was raped and murdered, citing scratch marks on her body and the absence of clothing. Despite repeated pleas from the family, the police failed to examine CCTV footage from the market where the child had disappeared. On Saturday, after the child’s body was found, the police finally used the CCTV footage to identify a local man named Mostakik Sardar as a potential suspect. Sardar allegedly confessed to the crime and was seen on the footage taking the girl away on a bicycle.
“The girl’s mother has collapsed in shock. She was everyone’s darling; we loved her like our own. She was always topping her class. I can’t fathom anyone doing something so terrible. The truth is, rapists in this area often go unpunished, which encourages others to commit such heinous crimes” said the victim’s neighbour Rikta Naskar.
The jurisdictional dispute between two local police stations over filing the FIR and conducting the post-mortem intensified public anger. Villagers stormed the Mahishmari police outpost, setting it on fire and destroying a police motorcycle.
Violence broke out over the the police’s alleged inaction. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar
The situation escalated further when the local Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA arrived to calm the crowd. The angry mob forced him and his party members to flee. When TMC MP Pratima Mondal visited Padmerhat Rural Hospital, where the girl’s body was taken for autopsy, she was met with ‘go back’ slogans from some people.
Leaders from the opposition parties, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Agnimitra Paul, former state minister Kanti Ganguly and DYFI (DYFI) leader Meenakshi Mukherjee, also visited the hospital and had heated exchanges with police officials while trying to meet the deceased girl’s family.
“The chief minister of the state failed as an administrator. Nirbhaya fund money is being returned without being utilised. Criminals are getting emboldened because the government is indifferent to the safety of women,” said BJP MLA Agnimitra Pal.
“Police is doing their work. However, there is a planned effort to discredit the administration,” said Palash Dali, Police Superintendent of Baruipur.
To avoid further controversy, like in the case of alleged irregularities in the autopsy of the RG Kar victim, the child’s body was taken to a morgue in Kolkata, where leftist activists staged a protest demanding a proper post-mortem. During the protest, unidentified masked individuals in black assaulted the demonstrators.
“We were forcibly dragged away and it’s unclear whether the attackers were police or others. The police’s actions from the beginning have been questionable. Despite the rape and murder of a young girl, they initially filed only a kidnapping charge, not under the POCSO Act. It seems like the police are trying to protect the rapists,” alleged Student’s Federation of India (SFI) leader Dipshita Dhar, who was assaulted during the protest.
Vehicles set on fire in Joynagar. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar.
Inaugurating a Puja pandal on Sunday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee defended the police saying that people can make mistakes. “When one or two incidents happen in Bengal, there is too much hue and cry. They have a right to do that. But when similar incidents happen elsewhere, they have leukoplast [adhesive tape] on their lips,” said the chief minister. “I want the police to investigate the Kultali incident in three months,” she added.
Slamming her for trivialising the case, Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Md. Salim said, “Her kind of ‘Franchise politics is sustained by such criminal-corrupt nexus. It seems she is interested in continuing with her theatrical rhetoric. Despite this huge public outcry, she wants her syndicate to feel comfortable.”
On Sunday, the child’s parents moved the Calcutta high court, requesting a CBI probe due to their mistrust in the state police. The court directed the police to include the POCSO Act in the case which had been omitted from the initial FIR. The post-mortem was conducted on Monday by AIIMS Kalyani doctors at the state-run JNM Hospital as per the court’s order.
In East Medinipur district on Sunday, a man attempted to rape a woman in her home. When she resisted, he poured insecticide on her face. The woman was rescued the next day and taken to a hospital, where she recounted the attack and identified the assailant. Shortly afterward, the accused was beaten to death by an angry mob.
Translated from the Bengali original by Aparna Bhattacharya.
