People's Democracy

BENGAL GANGRAPE

NCW must Ensure Speedy Justice: AIDWA

ON February 7, 2014, the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) submitted a memorandum to Ms Mamta Sharma, chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), at New Delhi. The aim was to bring to the notice of the NCW a recent incident of gangrape at Amta in Howrah district in West Bengal. In this case, a 27 years old housewife and her mother-in-law, aged 43 years, were brutally gangraped on February 4, 2014. They were admitted in the Ulberia hospital with severe injuries. The miscreants, 10 in number, not only raped them but also brutalised them in the most inhuman ways possible. The house was ransacked and looted. They shut the electric transformer down at the time of the incident and the whole house was in the dark. The young mother’s small child was also thrown into the courtyard mercilessly by the goons, along with the mother. The distance of the police checkpost was 500 metres only, but no one came to the spot to save them.

The memorandum said it is alleged that Trinamul Congress (TMC) leader Barun Makhal, who fought the recent panchayat election, was also involved in this incident. After the panchayat elections, TMC supporters began to attack the villagers who had supported the opposition. For example, males of Muktirchak village were evicted from the village and false cases were lodged against them. The AIDWA said the role of the police in this barbaric incident needed to be condemned. Journalists were not permitted to meet the rape survivors.

The AIDWA memorandum also expressed its doubt whether there would be a fair enquiry into the case and guilty would be punished as per law, as the accused are politically sheltered by the ruling party in the state government. The AIDWA wants the NCW to look into the case and see that the real culprits are identified, a swift investigation is conducted and the guilty are punished.

Apart from demanding speedy justice for the rape survivor in this horrendous case, the AIDWA has urged the NCW to take note of the extremely unsafe and precarious condition of women in West Bengal and to make appropriate intervention in the situation.

The memorandum was signed by AIDWA general secretary Jagmati Sangwan, its vice president Sudha Sundararaman and its Delhi unit’s general secretary Sehba Farooqui.