HANSKHALI (NADIA): In a Ranaghat court on Monday, the Hanskhali rape-murder victim's mother reiterated before the judicial magistrate that her daughter was raped, which led to her eventual death. She also alleged that Sohel and Samar had threatened them against going to the cops.
The victim's sister, speaking to the press, said Sohel was in a relationship with her sister. "They were in love. But he trapped her and raped her on the night of his birthday. She was brought back home seriously unwell, after which she died," she said.
Sohel's father, Samar, is a Trinamool Congress gram panchayat member. He, and the rest of the family, are on the run. Locals claimed Samar was a strongman, who, along with Sohel, terrorised villagers. The police said he was being hunted: as the party took place at his house, his testimony would be key to the probe.
Sohel, as he was being taken to court in a prison van, was asked by reporters what his role was in the case. "I know nothing," he replied. He has been charged under the IPC for rape of a minor, murder and destruction of evidence, as well as provisions of the Pocso Act.
Late on Sunday, the cops picked up Biswas, the local quack. He said the victim's parents had come to his home, seeking medicines for her, saying she was suffering from acute abdominal pain. He told the court he had prescribed some medicines and had only learnt later that the parents returned home to find she had died. Although the crematorium worker also testified, it was not immediately clear, sources said, how the cremation could have taken place without a doctor's certificate.
Ananya Chakraborti, the chairperson of West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights, has left for Hanskhali after CM Mamata Banerjee asked the commission to probe the incident. Chakraborti, however, asked: "Why didn't the doctor, or anyone from the nursing home, inform the police? Second, how can the crematorium burn a body without a death certificate?"
The BJP had called a 12-hour Hanskhali bandh on Monday.
