In first ever incident of its kind, the Supreme Court on Friday took suo motu cognisance of the Birbhum gang-rape case directing the District Judge to enquire into the matter and submit a report directly to it within a week’s time.
The gang-rape, one of the numerous such incidents taking place in recent months in Bengal, was ordered by a team of village elders after the victim, a 20-year-old girl, failed to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 for reportedly having an affair with a boy from a different community.
Expressing shock over the “disturbing” incident that made news globally, a Division Bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice MY Eqbal ordered the District Judge to go to the village personally and submit his report to the SC bench. A notice was slapped on the State Government seeking its explanations, secretariat sources said.
The apex court’s intervention saw a quick action from a seemingly nervous State Government put the ‘transferred’ Superintendant of Police on ‘compulsory waiting’ and filed a second petition before the district court seeking police remand for the 13 people arrested in the case. The police had shown a lacklustre attitude on Thursday by not demanding police custody. The accused were then send on a 14-day judicial custody on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Birbhum affair took a political turn on Friday with the victim’s kin and the local tribal community alleging the involvement of local Trinamool Congress leaders in the incident. Victim’s brother said local Trinamool leaders Ajay Mandal, Babu Bagdi and Sujit were present at the Salisi Sabha, native equivalent of kangaroo court, and “directed the proceedings.”
The victim’s father said, “The Trinamool panchayat member was personally present at the scene and gave directions. They asked the girl and the boy to be tied up with a tree for hours and repeatedly pressurised them for Rs 50,000. We are very poor, hardly get two square meals and live in huts of coconut leaves. How can we pay such a huge amountIJ”
Go Go Gaonta, a tribal association, on Friday insisted there was no such system of any kangaroo court in their community. “We do not have any system of kangaroo court that intervenes in people’s personal lives. It was all a political case which should be properly investigated,” said Rabin Soren, a Gaonta leader who took out a procession in Birbhum condemning the rape and demanding action against the accused.