People's Democracy

Kamduni Again, in Burdwan

And Madhyamgram Now!

From Our Special

Correspondent in Kolkata

NOTHING is more certain in West Bengal now than a recurrence of barbaric atrocity committed against a woman in one or another part of the state, almost daily. The state, for the last two and a half years, has deteriorated from being the safest place for the women to being the most dangerous one. The tale of Park Street, Katwa and Kamduni seems unending.

In another gruesome incident, closely resembling Kamduni, a school student was killed after gangrape in Nababhat, in the vicinity of Burdwan town. The girl had been missing since the evening of October 25 when she left her home at Shibpur village, for her tuition and did not return. Her family lodged a complaint with the police the next day and her body was spotted near a bridge on a canal on the morning of October 27.  Her body was badly mutilated, bearing every signs of a barbaric torture. Even after clear leads, the police refused to nab the alleged culprits. The reason was simple: all the culprits were local Trinamool workers. The gangleader of this attack, Badsha, is also the right hand of the local TMC leader. Angry with police inaction, the villagers themselves began to search and nabbed three culprits and handed them over to police. Under pressure from the TMC leaders, the police initially refused to register cases of gangrape against them. The angry outburst from the villagers and their protest in front of the police station forced the police to arrest them on rape cases too. But Badsha absconded. Villagers alleged that he was allowed to flee by police, under instruction from the TMC leaders.

Villagers came out in the streets of Burdwan town and marched towards the city police station on the next day. They carried posters, bearing the question “Why in Burdwan again after Kamduni?” The district leaders of AIDWA too went to police station and demanded immediate arrest of all culprits. Such was the involvement of TMC leaders in the crime that TMC hoodlums attacked the house of Suparana Nandi , an AIDWA leader in the night. They were furious as Nandi went to the police station to protest against the rape. One front ranking leader of the ruling party masterminded the attack. 

Almost at the same time, another incident of gangrape in Madhyamgram, a suburb of Kolkata, exposed the law and order situation in the state. A 16 year old girl was gangraped not once, but twice in a gap of three days by local anti-socials. The girls’ family is from Samastipur, Bihar and her father is a taxi-driver in Kolkata. The girl was raped by a gang and was psychologically shocked. However, her family registered a complaint in local police station and identified some of the culprits. The police, after much dilly-dallying, received the complaint but let the girl go home without security. On the way back, the same culprits kidnapped the girl and again she had to undergo the horrible experience. This time, it was her ‘punishment’ for reporting to police. Her family again went to police and in between the incident was reported in the media too. Police arrested three culprits under pressure from the local people.

The torture did not end there. From the morning of October 29, TMC activists practically cordoned the girl’s house and began to threaten the family so that they don’t speak out to media. A delegation of AIDWA district leaders was attacked and abused in front of the victim’s house. TMC activists pressurised police to block entry of all media persons and ‘outsiders’ in the area. In a stunning comment the district police superintendent said to media it was virtually impossible to check rapes in a crowded area like Madhyamgram. In a virtual repetition of Kamduni (earlier reported in PD) TMC leaders mounted a pressure on the victim’s family to shut up and accept whatever happened to them.

The victim’s father lamented that he had brought her family from Samastipur to West Bengal and asserted that he would go back to his native place as soon as possible to save the life of her daughter. It was another aspect of the atrocious incident. The migrants felt safest in Bengal for decades but now everything has ‘changed’.