Traumatised teacher tries to put dark days behind

KOLKATA: After a month in jail, Sipra Das was finally granted bail by the first additional district and sessions Judge on Thursday.
Das, 53, was arrested by Kasba police on September 1 after a mob stripped and assaulted her in broad daylight blaming her for the death of a 14-year-old domestic help at her Selimpore home. The maid, Bhagirathi Haldar, had committed suicide.
A day after the Alipore sub-divisional judicial magistrate remanded Das to jail custody for a week on September 16, her advocates moved the high court.On September 17, the judge sought relevant papers from Kasba police.
It was on Thursday that it again came up for hearing. Her advocate Partha Sarathi Chakraborty said, "Das was granted bail for a surety of Rs 3,000."
The Lake View Girls School teacher, however, was brought to the Alipore (police) court lock-up around noon. Her case would have anyway come up for hearing before the SDJM.
After Das'' family fulfilled the necessary bail conditions, the teacher walked out of the lock-up at 4:37 pm. She headed straight for her brother''s home in Jadavpur.
But hours before in the court, her lawyers insisted suicide was common during adolescence and suicidal attempts are particularly common among girls. They claimed that in Bhagirathi Haldar''s case that was what happened. "The post-mortem report clearly states she had committed suicide," Chakraborty said.
On September 16, cops had pleaded for more time to investigate the alleged abetment of suicide. But during the two-week jail custody, they did not make any attempt to question her, sources said.
Das'' Selimpore home now has police guards posted only at night. Das'' relatives, though, were allowed inside the home only once to witness the ravaged two-storey building.