By Sirshendu Panth, IANS,
Kolkata : The efforts of the West Bengal administration, led by the state’s first woman Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, to play down an Anglo-Indian woman’s complaint of being “raped at gun point” after late night partying on fashionable Park Street have raised the hackles of rights bodies and eminent people.
The incident has also raised serious questions on law and order, as it is the latest in a chain of murders as well as shootings and snatchings – many of them in broad daylight – in Kolkata and adjacent areas. There has even been an incident of a packet containing body parts being unearthed.
The alleged rape victim, who is a mother of two and a call centre employee, claims that while coming out of a posh night club in the wee hours of Feb 6 she was offered a lift by an acquaintance in car.
As the car was about to start, some more people entered it, and she was later raped inside the moving vehicle and then thrown out into the streets.
However, the woman’s claim that the acquaintance was one Lavi Gidwani created confusion as immigration records showed he was in Canada from Jan 2. Later, the woman told a television channel that the man had first introduced himself as Rahman Khan and then gave his name as Lavi Gidwani.
Police initially claimed that mobile call records of two other alleged culprits – Sharafat Ali and Azhar Ali – showed they were far from the spot at the time of occurrence of the alleged crime.
Deputy Commissioner of City Police (Crime) Damayanti Sen Thursday said the “victim” seemed “confused” and “certain technical discrepancies” had to be sorted out before police could come to a conclusion.
Mamata Banerjee the same day called it a “cooked up case” and said it was only an attempt to “malign the government”.
Trinamool Congress leader and Sports Minister Madan Mitra went further. While talking to a TV channel, he not only questioned the morality of the woman but went on to say that the complaint was fabricated to extort money.
“She has two children and so far as I know she is separated from her husband. What was she doing at a night club so late in the night?” he asked.
At the state secretariat, a government spokesman asked whether she was involved with an escort service and referred to an old case of cheating against her father.
But West Bengal Women’s Commission chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee, who was handpicked for the post by the chief minister, took exception to the comments.
“If any woman claims she has been raped then the rule is it has to be looked into with utmost seriousness. None of us have the right to say the allegation is right or wrong when investigation is on,” she said.
Writer Suchitra Bhattacharya said: “No woman will falsely claim that she has been raped. And the character of a woman should not be dragged into the issue. There is a Supreme Court ruling on this.”
On Friday, police officer Sen conceded, “Something must have occurred.”
However, police investigation was hindered as the woman’s mother had washed her clothes hours after the incident. Also, the alleged victim went to file her complaint three days later Feb 9, when she also underwent a medical examination herself.
Police, on the other hand, conducted her medical examination for getting clinical and pathological clues about the crime only Feb 14, over a week after the alleged incident.
The delay has been questioned by forensic experts, women’s activists and former policemen while speaking during television debates or while responding to journalists’ questions.
Police say they are looking into all angles in the case. The woman’s strained relations with her sister are also being probed to ascertain whether it was linked to the case.
(Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at [email protected])