The case of the alleged gang-rape and murder of a schoolgirl from north Bengal has only twisted further if anything. The prime accused, a schoolmate of the victim, was found dead in a pond, not very far from the tree under which the girl’s body was found.
This has led to further controversies and made the case even more difficult for the police to solve. The deceased youth’s mother, who hails from North Dinajpur district, told the police that both the victims knew each other but denied any possibility of them being in a relationship.
She said that both were grade 10th students who had recently passed their final exams. The boy’s mother accused the girl’s family of being the reason for her son’s death.
However, the girl’s father had thrown allegations on the boy and blamed him for planning the entire gang-rape and murder incident. He had even mentioned the same in his police complaint.
According to the police, the post-mortem report of the girl revealed that she had not suffered any sexual assault and the cause of death was poison. On Monday evening, the police tweeted regarding the death of the main accused boy saying that the department fished out his body from a pond, close to the death location of the girl.
“Police is investigating both the cases and looking into all possible aspects of the incident including social ostracism, parental pressure and role played by some persons in hiding, misleading and diverting the attention from the actual incident,” West Bengal Police tweeted.
To stop things from going out of hand, senior Trinamool leaders quickly reached the concerned village to calm the locals.
Ministers Gautam Deb, Gholam Rabbani and Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Noor were on the spot. They met and spoke to the families, ascertaining that justice will be furnished to them.
BJP leaders and party workers had reached the Islampur hospital on Monday morning where the post-mortem was conducted. They wanted to take the girl’s body home claiming that her uncle was a party member; however, the police persuaded them against doing so.
“The body of a young man has been found there this morning. Tensions are high. We urge you not to go,” a senior policeman told BJP leader Raju Banerjee and party MP Nisith Pramanik. Later, the police arranged a conveyance for the girl’s family to take the body home.
“We don’t know anything about the body of a youth found in the village,” said Raju Banerjee, general secretary, BJP Bengal. “All we had wanted is justice for the girl and punishment for culprits responsible. Who knows what story Mamata Banerjee and her police will now spin,” he added.
The police had to disperse the crowd gathered around the pond where the boy’s body was found in order to fish it out. The girl’s body got cremated at another location.
When the Trinamool politicians reached the village after the funerals, a large number of people kept buzzing around the houses of both the girl and the boy during their interaction with the politicians.
The girl’s death had ignited a massive protest from the locals of the village who made its streets a battleground, hitting police with bows and arrows when they were met with lathis and tear gas for not nudging from their place.
