The area is currently quiet, police said, adding that an investigation is underway.
Kolkata:
The BJP today launched a massive attack on the Trinamool Congress-led government in Bengal over the rape and murder of a teenager, claiming that the police did not allow them to meet the victim’s family. They have also alleged that police suppressed and diluted evidence and that the victim’s body was dragged in a manner that was not dignified. Police have responded by saying they had to recover the body from an extremely unstable state of order.
“The @BJP4Bengal MLAs were not allowed to visit the victim’s family and were involuntarily taken to a police station and forced to sit there by force because how else would @WBPolice suppress information and dilute evidence. They drag the victim’s body into such a an unworthy way,” leader of the opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari tweeted at the state assembly.
The incident came to light on Friday morning when the teenager’s body was discovered on the banks of a pond in Kaliyaganj town of Uttar Dinajpur district. Local residents found the body of the missing minor. Police arrived at the scene to recover the body and sent it for an autopsy.
On Friday, local residents staged a protest to demand justice for her. When police arrived on the scene, they claimed they had to brave violence and stone-fire from angry mobs to retrieve the body. Police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the situation.
Police say the body should be collected in a safe manner to ensure minimal contamination of evidence, and they tried to do so. Unfortunately, there was violence in that area, they said, and they were forced to sell tear gas.
“Police had to use tear gas against the protesters to recover the victim’s body from them to ensure an early autopsy so that important evidence is not lost. We have also formed a medical board to properly investigate the matter. incident will be handled appropriately.” under investigation,” said Superintendent of Police of Dinajpur Sana Akhtar.
Police claim they managed to retrieve the body before any evidence could be damaged. They have restricted the movement of politicians. The BJP claims that local Trinamool politicians have been allowed into the area while being stopped.
The area is currently quiet, police said, adding that an investigation is underway.
Earlier today, the National Commission for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (NCPCR) also took note of the matter and said it would send an investigative team to investigate.
A statement released by the office of NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo read: “We have received information regarding the gang rape incident and the murder of a girl 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 am going to North Dinajpur myself with my team”.
It added: “Our team will arrive 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 murdering a girl child and getting her justice.”
NCPCR also claimed that the Secretary of State and Collector of North Dinajpur are not responding despite the agency informing them about the incident.
The statement further stated that punishing the perpetrators is the only way to stop such incidents in West Bengal.
