West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to downplay the brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Nadia’s Hanskhali village last Monday. The case in which a TMC leader’s son was named as the accused has shaken the people up as it involves a minor being raped and murdered. Mamata Banerjee stated that everyone was aware of the girl’s love affair, so one is left to wonder here whether it was an actual rape or pregnancy that went wrong.
Speaking at the inauguration of the revamped Milan Mela, a permanent fair-ground opposite the Science City at the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in Kolkata on the afternoon of April 11, Monday, the CM cast doubt on the rape aspect of the crime. In an obvious attempt to exonerate her party leader’s son from the heinous crime, Mamata Banerjee also went on to cast aspersions on the deceased minor girl’s character.
She said in Bengali, “As a layman, I am saying where would someone get the evidence whether she was actually raped or was she pregnant or was there any other reason, like someone beat her up or she died of some illness. There was a love affair for sure, her family knew about it, and their neighbors also knew about it. Now if a girl and a boy love each other, I cannot punish them”, said the WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “This is not Uttar Pradesh that I can do that in the name of Love Jihad”, said the West Bengal Chief Minister.
She further went on to lambast the media for politicizing the incident to defame the state.
Amit Malviya, a BJP leader, shared a snippet of her speech in which he condemned the CM’s abysmal reaction to such a heinous offense simply because the accused was the son of a TMC leader. Malviya Tweeted, “Shocking statement by Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who trivializes the brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Nadia’s Hanskhali. She questions the victim and asks if it was a love affair or a case of unplanned pregnancy gone awry! Because the accused is TMC leader’s son.”
Shocking statement by Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who trivialises the brutal rape and murder of a 14 year old girl in Nadia’s Hanskhali. She questions the victim and asks if it was a love affair or a case of unplanned pregnancy gone awry!
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) April 11, 2022
Because the accused is TMC leader’s son. pic.twitter.com/ZaMFL73T03
Many other social media users also criticized Mamata Banerjee for her insensitive remark on the Hanskhali incident. One recalled Mamata Banerjee’s similar whitewashing of the 2012 Park Street rape incident, where a woman was raped by five men after she exited a nightclub. Then too, Mamata Banerjee had said that it was not a case of sexual assault but a misunderstanding during a deal between a woman and her “client”.
Park Street rape was a dispute between the client (read rapists) & the service provider (read victim) #Hanskhali – the boy (read rapist cum murderer) & the girl (read victim) were in a love affair
— Sanjukta Choudhury (@SanjuktaChoudh5) April 11, 2022
Lesser evil indeed. #MamataBanerjee #TMC
SHE has one of the filthiest minds https://t.co/jROJJbc1pf
Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP has called for a 12-hour bandh tomorrow, April 12, from 6 am to 6 pm protesting the Hanskhali rape and murder case of a minor.
Public interest litigation has also been filed in the Calcutta High Court on Monday, demanding a CBI probe into the matter. It is likely to be heard on Tuesday.
It may be recalled that a Trinamool Congress leader’s son has been accused of raping a juvenile girl by inviting her to his birthday party. The girl died from heavy bleeding, and her body was allegedly cremated by the accused forcefully.
The girl’s family claimed that the main accused is Brajgopal the son of Gajna Gram Panchayat member Samar Gowla.
The police have arrested the accused and registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. The accused, the son of a local TMC dominated panchayat, was slapped with the charges of rape, murder, and suppressing evidence.
