A second arrest was made early on Tuesday morning in the Hanskhali case related to the death of a minor as the incident snowballed into a political controversy. The minor girl had died after she was allegedly gang-raped at a birthday party in Hanskhali in West Bengal's Nadia district. The girl's family claimed that the main accused is the son of a Trinamool Congress panchayat member, who has been arrested for further investigation.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday sought an urgent report from the state chief secretary.
The parents of the minor, a student of Class 9, lodged a complaint against the accused at Hanskhali police station on Saturday, four days after the incident. According to the complaint, the girl went to the residence of the accused on Monday afternoon to attend his birthday party, but she returned home in an ailing condition and died soon after. "Our daughter was bleeding profusely and had severe abdominal pain after she came back from the party at the residence of the local TMC leader's son, and before we could take her to hospital, she died. From the sequence of events and after talking to the people present at the party, we are sure she was gang-raped by the accused and his friends," the girl's mother told reporters.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in a public address, had wondered if the minor was pregnant, and also asked why the girl's family members lodged a police complaint five days after her death and cremating the body.
The opposition BJP panned Banerjee for her comment and wondered whether her remarks were aimed at influencing the probe. "Shocking statement by Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who trivialises the brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Nadia's Hanskhali. She questions the victim and asks if it was a love affair or a case of unplanned pregnancy gone awry. Because the accused is TMC leader's son," senior BJP leader and the party's co-in charge of West Bengal, Amit Malviya, tweeted.
Echoing him, the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari said such kind of comments only prove how Banerjee is trying to influence the probe and shield the culprits. When any such incident occurs in BJP-ruled states, she is the first to protest against it. But when similar incidents take place in West Bengal, she tries to shield the culprits. It is shameful that despite being a woman chief minister, she is making such comments. This is the real picture of the lawless situation of Bengal, he said.
The CPI(M) and the Congress also slammed Banerjee for her comments. Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha and state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that several such incidents happening in West Bengal go unreported. "We don't get to know about them. Now we have come to know about this incident. What has happened is horrific. The ruling party is trying to influence the probe, he said.