Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, speaking about the Durgapur gang-rape case Monday, said that there isn’t any society or nation where such cases do not happen.
This statement came a day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee advised that girls should refrain from going out at night. She also questioned why the victim was outside the college premises at 12.30 a.m., a time that contradicted the exit records of the private medical college.
Speaking to the reporters, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, “There will be one or two such cases in a society; you cannot find any country in the world where this really doesn’t take place.”
She also mentioned that the West Bengal government has passed the Aparajita Bill; however, it has yet to receive approval from the President.
“We think this is a heinous crime. We want the perpetrator to be punished. We have passed the Aparajita Bill in the West Bengal Assembly, and then it has gone to Delhi, but the Central government has not allowed it. It is lying with the President. Whatever the government says, the President does. Despite our demand, it has not been passed. So the onus lies on the Central government,” Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar added.
The second-year medical student from Odisha was allegedly gang-raped outside the campus in Durgapur on October 10, after she went out with her male friend for dinner.
The arrested persons in the Durgapur rape case have been identified as Sheikh Reajuddin, Apu Bauri and Firdos Seikh. Additionally, one more person was arrested on Monday morning.
According to police, the student had stepped out of the campus with a male friend for dinner when a group of young men on motorcycles began stalking them and making lewd comments.
The men allegedly chased away the friend, dragged the student to a forested area behind the campus, and gang-raped her. They also snatched her mobile phone and threw it away.
The male friend returned with others from the college and found the injured student on the ground. She was admitted to a local hospital. Police confirmed she is a resident of Jaleswar, Odisha.
Meanwhile, the BJP has launched a scathing attack on the Chief Minister, calling her “habitual of victim blaming”, citing the previous such incidents.
Reacting to CM Banerjee’s remarks, BJP’s Information Technology Cell Chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, issued a social media post on Sunday afternoon, citing examples of how the Chief Minister has resorted to victim-blaming in similar cases earlier.
IANS
