“I don’t want to die, save me. I want justice and capital punishment for those who did this to me. Do not leave them at any cost,” the last words of his mother continue to haunt the 28-year-old son of a widow who was brutally gangraped over a month ago at Sandeshkhali in North 24 parganas, around 120 kilometres from Kolkata.
The 61-year-old’s gangrape was followed by extreme levels of brutality on the part of the perpetrators who inserted an empty liquor bottle and iron rods into her private parts.
The incident has revived chilling memories of the Nirbhaya case that had shocked the collective conscience of the country in 2012, forcing parliamentarians to implement a tough law to curb crimes involving sexual violence.
Mind-Numbing Brutality
The victim, who ran a small eatery barely a few metres away from Sandeshkhali police station, was subjected to the violence because she had objected to the consumption of alcohol by a group of men near her shop.
On 3 July, while returning home, the woman noticed around five men consuming alcohol in the backyard of her shop around 10 pm. She protested and told them to leave the place immediately. The men left after local residents voiced their support for the woman, but she had no inkling of what was to follow.
My mother used to walk to the house daily while I slept in the eatery. She was walking to her house that night when she saw few men consuming alcohol on the backside of our shop and raised alarm. Local residents soon gathered and supported her. The miscreants left. But a few hours later, around midnight, they barged into the house and sexually assaulted my mother.Victim’s son
“She was alone in the house then. After outraging her modesty, they dragged her outside and dumped her in a thorny bush,” says the victim’s third son as tears welled up in his eyes.
The victim remained unconscious, lying in a pool of blood for several hours, till a fish seller noticed her lying naked and informed her son early that morning.
I immediately rushed to my house and found my mother lying in the thorny bushes. She was unclothed and blood was oozing out from her private parts. I took her to a Primary Health Centre (PHC) from where she was rushed to Kolkata’s Calcutta National Medical College (CNMC). The doctors told me that they had never seen brutality of such magnitude and it was better to shift as her condition was too critical.Victim’s son
The woman, however, died on 31 July after battling for life for over twenty seven days.
Police Intransigence
Since then, her children – four sons and three daughters – have been running from pillar to post for justice. The police have, so far, arrested one of the accused, identified as Rajeswar Maiti alias Bhola (51), from the neighbourhood.
The family members suspect that at least four people attacked the woman, though cops now say that only one person committed the crime and dismissed it to be a gang rape.
“We have already arrested Bhola whose name she had mentioned in the statement given to us. We do not think that it is a gang rape. We have also seized blood soaked empty liquor bottle from the spot that was probably shoved inside the private parts,” said Satyajit Bhattacharya, Investigating Officer, Sandeshkhali police station.
Bhattacharya added that the accused has been booked under charges of rape, voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means, murder and unnatural sex.
He further revealed that Bhola has confessed to his crime and have claimed to have attacked the woman as she hurled expletives at him.
Lapses in Probe?
The police, however, have brushed aside charges of lax investigation leveled by the victim’s relatives, “We showed alacrity in shifting the woman to the hospital and registering the complaint. We immediately began the investigation and arrested the accused,” said Sandeshkhali police station sub-inspector Ganesh Biswas who was involved in the investigation.
The police’s indifference has shocked the victim’s relatives who claim that glass shards were removed from her private parts and her vital organs were brutally damaged, hastening her death.
Her condition cannot be narrated in words. Doctors told us that her private parts were totally damaged and even iron rod was shoved inside. It cannot be a handiwork of one person. Cops are trying to hush-up the matter.Victim’s son
Political Twist
The victim’s younger sister strongly vouched for capital punishment for those who committed the brutality, “The villagers here want gallows for those who brutally killed my sister. The liquor business in the village must also be shut immediately,” she said.
The incident has already assumed a political twist with BJP staging a protest at the village and even at the hospital where she was undergoing treatment. Her children have strongly urged political outfits to refrain from giving a political colour to their mother’s death.
(The writer is a Kolkata-based freelance journalist.)
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