Dalit Organisation to Protest in West Bengal over Unnatural Deaths of 2 Girls

Kolkata: Paschimbanga Samajik Nyaya Manch (PBSNM), an affiliate of the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) in West Bengal, has decided to go in for stringent protest throughout the state against the unnatural death of two teenagers who were allegedly raped and murdered.

Alokesh Das, Secretary of PBSNM, condemned the police inaction surrounding the deaths of the two teens in North Dinajpur’s Kaliaganj and Maldaha’ Kaliachowk, respectively. He said that regardless of caste, religion or creed, the perpetrators of the crime must be brought into book. “Those who are trying to define the perpetrators by their religion are trying to reap political benefits instead of bringing the culprits to book. The real faces of these people should be revealed,” he added while speaking to NewsClick.

Meanwhile, the ruling Trinamool Congress has taken a defensive stance on the matter, despite CM Mamata Banerjee expressing dissatisfaction with the police’s handling of the violence in Kaliaganj. On Wednesday, during protests over a 17-year-old Rajbongshi girl’s death, demonstrators reportedly attacked the police and set fire to the police station. On April 26, Mrityunjoy Roy, a 33-year-old Rajbongshi youth who suffered a fatal gunshot wound, was killed during the police’s search operation to locate those responsible for the arson.

The occurrence of consecutive violent incidents in Kaliagan has resulted in the imposition of prohibitory orders by the district administration under Section 144 of the CrPC throughout the block. Additionally, the state home department has suspended internet services in the locality from Thursday until April 30.

Das also strongly condemned Roy’s alleged murder by the police.  

He said that the communal twist to the case must be stemmed, and those indulging in it should be punished. He also informed that demanding an independent judicial probe over the incident, a team of the organisation will submit a deputation to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes in their regional headquarters in Kolkata. Former VC of Kalyani University, Basudeb Barman, Tarakchandra Das and Prof Pritikumar Roy will be part of a three-member delegation on the matter.

Last Friday at Sahebghata in North Dinajpur’s Kaliaganj block, the dead body of the Rajbongshi girl belonging to the scheduled caste community was recovered. It has been alleged that the girl was victim of gang rape. On that day, the members of PBSNM visited the victim’s house under the leadership of the organisation’s north Dinajpur district secretary. They condemned the incident, bringing it to the forefront of the media. 

On the other side, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP tried to give the incident a communal flavour and attacked the local police station and torched a section of it. They beat up police constables present at the station at night. By this time, the representatives of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Women’s Commission representatives had also visited the victim’s house and criticised the role of the state government and police inaction over the alleged rape and murder.

In another incident in Maldaha district, the body of a ninth-standard girl student, who also belonged to a backward caste, was recovered last Tuesday from Kaliachowk block’s no-3 Akandaberia area. The girl’s body lay in the fields for over two hours, and the police came only after that to recover it. 

Condemning the role of the BJP here for attempting to disturb communal peace, PBSNM has demanded a fast-tracked probe by the police. It demanded that the perpetrators of both these crimes should be punished. In a press statement, the PBSNM also noted that throughout the state, attacks on women are on the rise and rapes and molestation are turning to be common occurrences. At the receiving end of many of those incidents are women from dalit and backward castes. 

The PBSNM secretary also demanded that the state government take stringent measures to thwart these types of attacks on the dalit backward caste women.