Teen raped and killed, kin cry TMC coercion

BEHRAMPORE: In the latest of a spree of horrifying sexual crimes in Bengal, a 14-year-old girl was found raped and killed in a jute field in Murshidabad's Sonadanga village on Saturday.
Like the 13-year-old Gaighata victim, the family of the Sonadanga girl also alleges they were threatened by Trinamool Congress leaders not to file a rape complaint. Her brother alleged that police refused to register the family's complaint of rape and booked the six accused only for murder.Police also made him sign a blank paper, he alleged.
Also, like the Gaighata girl, the Murshidabad victim's body was found naked in a jute field with her clothes strewn about.
The police are yet to arrest the prime accused Hoqdar Sheikh, 21, a mason, or any of his alleged accomplices. He was the victim's next-door neighbour and was allegedly in a relationship with the Class IX girl but his family opposed it, say locals.
On Tuesday night, Hoqdar, his father Shamsul Sk, uncle and three others allegedly came to the victim's house and promised to gift her a mobile handset. This was a ploy to get her to leave home, says her family. Hoqdar then raped and murdered her, they allege.
The girl was missing for over three days and her family had lodged a complaint of kidnapping against Hoqdar, his father and the four others who had allegedly lured her to leave home on Tuesday night.
On Saturday morning, a strong stench from the jute field led villagers to her decomposing body.
Her family identified the body and rushed to the local Ranitala police station to modify their complaint but the police allegedly tried to browbeat them.
"Since police won't book them for rape, we will lodge a rape and murder charge in Lalbag subdivisional court on Monday. Police are trying to brush aside our rape complaint and forced us to sign a blank paper. My sister was evidently raped by Hoqdar before the murder as she was stripped naked and her clothes were left all around her body by her assailants," said her brother.
"The police have been harassing us from the very beginning. They told us to go Lalbag for the post-mortem but sent my sister's body to Behrampore. We wonder if the autopsy was conducted at all," said a relative.
Biplab Karmakar, the OC of Ranitala police station, was curt when asked about the family's grievance. "We had started a kidnap case earlier and then a murder case, according to the complaint of the victim's elder brother. If you want to know more, contact my superiors."
TOI called Murshidabad SP Humayun Kabir who said that they could start a rape case, too, if the autopsy report corroborates it. "We have started a murder case. Hoqdar is absconding. If he is caught, the crime will be reconstructed," said Kabir.