Provide security to gang-rape victim's family, says HC

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Thursday directed the state to provide security to the Madhyamgram rape victim's kin. Justice Dipankar Dutta, who was hearing the victim's father's CBI probe plea demand, also asked the state to respond to it within a week. The victim's father has said that he has full faith in the judiciary and would accept cop protection.
Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said, "The court has asked the state to inform it whether or not CBI probe shall be ordered based on the petition. Else, it will hear the matter out and decide itself." Bhattacharya told the court that the police could not provide security to the victim and that is why she was raped for the second time. He also informed the court that the victim's kin feared a threat to their life.
This prompted Justice Dutta to direct state advocate general Bimal Chatterjee to give protection to the victim's family wherever they are. Government pleader Asoke Banerjee said that the government was duty bound to provide security to each of its citizens. Police can't do anything if the victim's family is in "political shelter", the advocate general said. This was in reference to the family staying at CITU's Shramik Bhawan headquarters. The AG, at this point said, security was provided and will be provided. The matter will be heard on January 15.
The 36-page petition filed in the Calcutta high court on January 6 dwells on the incidents on and after the October 26 gang-rape. It says that the victim had come from Bihar to study and be a teacher.
She went missing on October 25 only to return the next day, scared and traumatised. That night, she told her parents that she was gang-raped in an open field. When she and her father went to lodge a complaint, he was made to wait for nine hours before an FIR was registered. The next day she was raped again.
The girl's father alleged that when he went to lodge the second complaint, police forcibly made him sign and acknowledge a written complaint with distorted facts. That she was raped again wasn't borne out by the second FIR.
The second FIR, he claimed, was made against one "Chottu" and no one else. He chose to shift to a new house near the airport on November 13 but was traced by the confidants of the accused. They kept on threatening them and taking advantage of his and his wife's absence, set the victim on fire on November 23. Admitted to RG Kar Hospital the same day, his daughter was given minimal treatment. The hospital scoffed at their repeated pleas to transfer her to the SSKM burn ward. He had also lodged a formal complaint against the R G Hospital superintendent for it.
The petition also said that right to life, which is a fundamental right, wasn't ensured here as police failed to protect a rape victim and her tormented family. Instead, it alleged, that police were desperate to cremate the body before day-break on December 31-January 1 that they even hijacked the hearse and incessantly rained threats at their home. He was asked to go back to Bihar and threatened to stop plying his taxi. Prima facie, the petition argues, that the state and police had purposefully neglected to give the victim any respite for she was poor and came from Bihar. His lawyer Uday Shankar Chattopadhyay said, "A state agency investigation can't be impartial. Therefore, we demand a CBI probe."
On January 15, a Barasat fast-track court is likely to commence the gang-rape trial. The six persons charged with gang-rape including prima facie accused Sanjib Talukdar alias Chottu would now be tried for gang-rape, abduction and "aggravated penetrative sexual assault" of a minor. The later forms a part of a new law - the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 - which like the gang-rape charge can lead to life behind bars, if convicted.