BJP targets Trinamool govt. over allegations of Kolkata rape-murder victim’s father

BJP MP Sambit Patra questions Trinamool Congress government's alleged cover-up in rape-murder case, demands fair probe.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sambit Patra on Friday (September 6, 2024) asked what the Trinamool Congress government had attempted to conceal by allegedly offering money to the family of the rape-murder victim in West Bengal.

Quoting the allegations made by the victim’s family, Mr. Patra said even when the victim’s body was lying in her house, a District Collector had tried to give money to her parents.

“What was it that the administration was trying to throw under the carpet by paying money to the parents of the victim?..can you imagine what would be the mental condition of the father whose daughter had been brutally murdered?” he asked, adding that the questions raised by the father were of paramount importance.

The BJP leader said around 10 a.m. on August 10, the authorities knew that the victim had been murdered. Her family was informed about it around 11 a.m., but was told that she had died by suicide. They were kept waiting outside the seminar hall of the medical college, where the incident took place and where her body was still being kept, for over three hours. Citing the father’s statement, he alleged that the post-mortem was delayed and the case was registered around 11.45 p.m.

Mr. Patra also questioned why the police asked the victim’s family to sign on a blank paper. Seeking a fair probe, he said demanded that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Kolkata Police Commissioner step down.

The BJP leader also cited a letter dated August 10, purportedly written by the former medical college principal, related to the proposed renovation of a room adjoining the seminar hall and two toilets; higher authorities allegedly cleared the request the same day. He alleged that attempts were made to destroy the evidence.