The Trinamool Congress on Friday evening distanced itself from the main accused in the South Calcutta Law college gang-rape case, while trying to silence the opposition from raising the issue.
“We are not defending the incident. But the BJP and the CPM have no right to speak on this issue. Their hands are full with such crimes,” said Kunal Ghosh, former Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool spokesperson at a news conference at the party headquarter, rolling out a list of crimes during the Left rule.
The party’s X handle shared images of top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi with several people accused of sexual crimes across the country.
“Have they completely forgotten how BJP protects rapists and refuses to punish them? Crimes against women did not rise on its own in BJP-ruled states, rapists are repeatedly nurtured and protected under Narendra Modi’s watch. From granting bail to those convicted of rape to shooting down victims and their kin – BJP has repeatedly shown its true colours. The nation remembers, the nation watches,” the Trinamool wrote on X.
Ghosh swung into damage control mode with a controlled aggression by saying that the Trinamool could not be held responsible for every person who has an outside association with the party.
“Trinamool is a mass-based party. People come to meet the leaders, if photographs are to be held against Trinamool, Then the same should apply to Narendra Modi for being in the same frame for Prajwal Revanna and Brij Bhushan Singh,” said Ghosh.
Bidisha Kalita Dasgupta, the DC of Jadavpur Division said on X: “Kasba police station responded swiftly and decisively to a complaint of sexual assault involving a female law student in Kasba. An FIR was registered without delay, and within 12 hours, all three accused in the complaint were apprehended. They have been remanded to police custody till July 1. The investigation is being pursued with utmost seriousness, professionalism and sensitivity.”
Ghosh and minister Shashi Panja too referred to the swift action taken by the Kolkata Police to book the perpetrators of the crime.
“Doctors raped patient in Odisha, rapes are happening in UP. In Bengal the incidents of crime against women have come down. Isolated incidents are being used to malign the state. We do not want any such incident to happen. What is important is how fast the state government is responding to such incidents. In the CPM rule no leader ever spoke against such incidents,” Ghosh said.
The Trinamool Chhatra Parishad state president Trinankur Bhatatacharya denied the main accused in the Kasba law college student’s gang-rape was associated with the organisation or the party.
“We are not denying that he was with Trinamool Chhatra Parishad in the past. As the state president I am saying for the last few years the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad does not have any unit in the college,” said Bhattacharya.
“He was one of the organisational secretaries. There are 80-100 people in that post across all the districts. In 2022, a new committee was formed and he was not included in the committee,” Bhattacharya said.
Panja, the state industries minister and a Trinamool spokesperson, asked why the Centre had not cleared the Aparajita Bill passed by the Bengal Assembly which was introduced after last year’s rape and murder at the RG Kar medical college and hospital to fast-track cases of crime against women.
“The BJP is only interested in politicising such cases. They have no sympathy for the victims. A woman’s body is not a political battlefield,” she said.
Clashes broke out between police and members of SFI and DYFI — Left wing student and youth organisations — after security personnel exercised force to remove them from protesting outside Kasba police station over the alleged gangrape of a student on a South Kolkata college campus.
Multiple agitators were reportedly injured in the scuffle and police said that an unknown number of demonstrators were detained and taken to Lalbazar, headquarters of the city police.
Nasty scenes of scuffles and fistfights broke out as a large contingent of lathi-wielding police and RAF personnel, led by Jadavpur Division DCP Bidisha Kalita Dasgupta, tried to remove agitators who had blocked Rajdanga Main Road in Kasba, disrupting traffic while attempting to lay siege to the Kasba police station.
Demonstrators were seen trying to grab batons from the hands of policemen. The protestors also tried to snatch some of their colleagues from the grips of police personnel when they were being apprehended.
Police also chased the protestors over significant distances on the road to disperse them.
The protestors had gathered in large numbers outside the Kasba PS where a student of the local South Calcutta Law College was allegedly gangraped inside institution premises on Wednesday.
(With inputs from PTI)