Der lokkho taka nin aar kete porun (Have Rs 1.5 lakh and get lost).” That is what the parents of a rape victim was told by the cops of Narendrapur Police Station in South 24 Parganas after the girl committed suicide failing to bear the ignominy and harassment of her parents who ran from pillar to post spending Rs 9 lakh for two years to get justice. All this while, the rapists who roamed freely — after obtaining bail — threatened the victim’s family and even got her house robbed when they did not withdraw their complaints. The police simply looked the other way.

The teenager was raped in 2020 and she ended her life in 2022 as her parents failed to get her justice. The incident — dating back two years — that was nearly dead and forgotten suddenly rematerialised on Saturday after an 11-year-old girl was raped and murdered at Mahishmari village in Joynagar sub-division once again in South 24 Parganas district.

Not wholly out of coincidence perhaps, the Saturday’s victim and the previous one who committed suicide happened to be first cousins.

“We have no security … is this the price of being born a girl in Bengal … you get out of your house to be seized, consumed and scythed by the wild beasts and you have nowhere to go … because the police are all bought over … I have been knocking every possible door but in vain … I lost my daughter … a hard-earned Rs 9 lakh and an additional punishment by way of my house getting robbed for not withdrawing the case,” said Amrita (name changed) insisting “today no woman is safe.

There tends to be one similarity between the rape that took place at Narendrapur and the one at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where a lady doctor was raped and murdered on August 9. In both the cases the police offered money to hush up the case. While in the RG Kar case a senior IPS officer had offered a fat packet stuffed with notes to the father of the victim, in the Narendrapur incident the mother of the victim was offered Rs 1.5 lakhs.

“As though everything can be sold … even honour or life … the police officers told me to get lost taking Rs 1.5 lakhs … I know because we are poor we will not get justice … and now brother’s daughter is dead … Why would not they take me … I would have gone with them … why would they tear my daughter off and eat her,” she wailed at the heavens.

While the officers of Narendrapur Police Station would not respond to the queries, Baruipur Superintendant of Police P Dhali said referring to the Saturday’s rape and murder, “we have acted swiftly and arrested one person called Mustakim in a matter of a few hours for committing the murder and will see to it that he gets the highest punishment.”

He however had no answer for the 2022 - 2024 incident saying he would definitely inquire into things. “At present I have no information about that as the report did not come to me ... but as I have come to know about this I will definitely look into it,” came his formal reply.

When asked as to the two cousin sisters getting raped could be mere coincidence or could there be a deep-rooted planning, another senior police officer said: “investigations are not based on conjectures … we will have to find it out.”

Saturday witnessed a massive public upheaval in and around Joynagar block with hundreds of angry villagers attacking the Kripakhali police outpost and setting it afire as reports spread that the dead girl had multiple wounds on her person and her limbs were broken. Her body was recovered by the Hooghly River.  

In a throwback of Sandeshkhali incident — which had hit national headlines early this year on account of alleged mass rape by ruling party politicians— hundreds of women hit the roads of Garanmari, Kultali, Mahishmari and neighbouring villages of North 24 Parganas protesting the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl whose body was found in the wee hours of Saturday by the canal connecting the Hooghly River.

Hundreds of villagers carrying sticks and brooms gheraoed the Kultali police station shouting “we want justice” a la the agitating junior doctors of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where an on-duty lady doctor was raped and murdered on August 9.

The police had arrested one Mustakim for perpetrating the brutalities on the minor girl. The court on Sunday remanded the accused to seven-day police custody. Besides, the Calcutta High Court which was hearing a parallel plea for getting the postmortem of the victim conducted at a central Government facility directed forensic experts of Kalyani AIIMS to conduct the autopsy at the state-run JNM Hospital. The court also directed the police to register case under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The Court also directed the autopsy to be conducted in presence of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Baruipur. Incidentally the Kolkata Police had received severe criticism from all quarters for conducting the postmortem of the RGKMCH victim in a hurried manner.

Cut to Kultali. Senior saffron leaders like Union Minister and Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar attacked the state administration for having failed to protect the women of the state. “The Saturday’s incident has once again proved that there is no law and order in Bengal … the total system has collapsed … that the women are not safe in this state was once again proved by the murder of the minor girl whose only fault was that she was returning from her tuition alone.”

Majumdar and BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul led a procession to the Kultali police station demanding strict action against the erring police men. In a skirmish that followed several police men and some BJP workers received minor injuries sources said. “We had to do what we were required to do to engage a hostile crowd that was attacking the police station with brickbats,” Baruipur SDPO said.

The villagers who took out long processions and blocked roads with wooden logs demanding justice for the victim to complain of police inaction. “Had the police not been so lax all these days … had the police not turned a blind eye to the incidents of eve-teasing, smuggling by the TMC goons, this girl would be safe today … We not only want the maximum punishment for the accused but also demand action against the police officers who were lax in discharging their duty,” the women shouted. CPI(M) leaders Meenakshi Mukherjee too led processions in the area.