Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday broke his silence on the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata. In a tweet, he said the entire country was shocked by the gruesome incident and the "attempt to save the accused instead of providing justice to the victim raises serious questions on the hospital and the local administration".
"This incident has forced us to think that if doctors are not safe in a place like medical college, then how can parents send their daughters outside for studies? Why are even the strict laws made after the Nirbhaya case unsuccessful in preventing such crimes? Every party, every section of the society will have to hold serious discussions and take concrete steps on the continuously increasing incidents against women from Hathras to Unnao, and from Kathua to Kolkata," Gandhi said.
Gandhi's statement comes a day after the BJP questioned the silence of the INDIA bloc leaders. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's TMC is part of the INDIA bloc.
On Tuesday, BJP's firebrand MP Sudhanshu Trivedi targeted the opposition, saying the parties of the INDI alliance were providing a crime cover to the mutual criminal elements. "Where is Priyanka Gandih, who said 'Ladki Hun, Lad Sakti Hun'. She is tight-lipped on rape incidents from Ayodhya, Kannauj, to Kolkata. Rahul Gandhi, who used to say Mohabbat Ki Dukaan, I feel in his political dukann, love is for criminals, terrorist accused, corrupti, and rapists," he said.
The BJP has been attacking Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the delay in the transfer of the case to the CBI. The saffron party accused Banerjee of siding with the accused instead of the victim and demanded her resignation.
In a press briefing, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed that no woman in the state would feel safe if she continued as chief minister. "You (Banerjee) did not perform your moral duty. You should immediately resign," he said, alleging that she tried to save the accused of the crime, which has shocked the nation.
Bhatia cited the critical comments of the Calcutta High Court about the handling of the case before it transferred the investigation to the CBI, as he addressed the CM as "nirmamta" (pitiless) Banerjee. He expressed confidence that the CBI will ensure a thorough probe and that the guilty are hanged.
Bhatia said the local police first informed the victim's parents that their daughter was sick and then claimed that she had committed suicide. The parents were made to wait for three hours before they could see her body, he said, alleging that attempts were made to destroy evidence and shield the accused.
Before doing a thorough probe, the police rejected the possibility of a gangrape, he said. The state government instead of acting against the principal of the medical college, where the victim worked and the incident happened, transferred him in the same position to another college, he said. The police did not initially lodge an FIR and termed the case as that of unnatural death, Bhatia said, hitting out at Banerjee for allegedly shielding the accused and trying to brush the crime under the carpet.
Amid the outrage, Banerjee said she would transfer the case to the CBI if it was not solved in a few days, he noted, suggesting that it was a deliberate attempt on her part to destroy evidence as the first 48 hours are very important in such cases. The chief minister tried to protect the accused in this case as well, and he was acted against only after the court handed over the probe to the CBI, he said.
Bhatia also slammed the INDIA bloc, of which the TMC is a part, saying they are "political cultures" who have chosen to maintain silence over the case for political reasons. He accused the opposition parties of pandering to minority votes, especially Muslims, by keeping selective silence over the targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh. He said only after the BJP raised the issue, the Congress at a "belated stage" made comments on the matter as well but tried to create an "artificial equivalence" that Hindus also indulge in such acts.
Meanwhile, a team of senior CBI officers has reached Kolkata to investigate the case. The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered the transfer of the probe from the Kolkata Police to the central agency. A source in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that the agency has filed an FIR under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in New Delhi in connection with the alleged rape and murder of the doctor.