Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], June 27 : Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shashi Panja on Friday expressed her distress over the horrific gang rape of a student at a law college in South Kolkata. She urged the BJP in West Bengal not to politicise the incident and behave as a responsible opposition. She assures strict action against all the accused.
Addressing a press conference, Shashi Panja said, "There was an immediate postmortem and dissection to look at the names and the religion. You have to condemn the incident. You are now trying to show photographs. Trinamool Congress Student wing is not teaching the students to rape. The police took immediate action, and within 12 hours of the complaint, three people were caught. They are in custody, and the investigation is on. Their mobile phones have been seized, and the victim's statement has been taken. She has named the accused. It has been taken seriously. The BJP cannot even think the way Kolkata police swung into action. They started maligning since such swift action is missing in the BJP-ruled states. If they want to be in Bengal as a responsible Opposition, then they have to behave responsibly."
She hit out at the BJP and accused the Central government of holding the Aparajita Bill.
"The Aparajita Bill, which was passed in our Vidhan Sabha before 10 months, who has stopped it from becoming a law? BJP has put it on hold at the centre. Body of a woman is not the object to do politics. We have to respect her body. Such incidents cannot be used for comparison between states based on the number of incidents. West Bengal is the only state to introduce the Aparajita Bill. In some of the states rape accused have been garlanded. You won't see this in West Bengal. Everyone knows which party does this. When they raise such protests we have to tell them to see that the states where you are ruling how you respect the women. This is a serious incident and full investigation will take place. The guilty will be punished," she further said.
A female student was allegedly gang-raped inside a law college in Kolkata's Kasba on Wednesday evening. The police have arrested all three accused within 24 hours.
The three accused, named as Monojit Mishra (31), Zaib Ahmed (19), and Pramit Mukhopadhyay (20), were former students or staff members of the same law college.
According to the police, the accused named in the FIR will be produced before the A.C.J.M. of Alipore, South 24 Parganas, with a prayer to remand them to Police Custody for the purpose of a proper investigation into the case.
The alleged sexual assault took place between 7:30 pm and 10:50 pm on Wednesday within the law college premises. According to the official, one of the accused allegedly committed sexual assault, while the others were involved in the crime.
The victim's family filed a police complaint against the accused, and the police have taken swift action in the matter.
Two of the accused, Monojit Mishra and Zaib Ahmed, were arrested on Thursday, near Siddhartha Shankar Roy Sishu Udyan, close to Talbagan Crossing in Kolkata. Pramit Mukhopadhyay was arrested later the same night at his residence. The police have seized the mobile phones of all three accused.
The official had visited the site and kept it under protection till they had done a forensic examination. They requested custody remand for further investigation.