Apparently furious with growing incidents of rape, Bengal Governor MK Narayanan on Thursday prescribed the proverbial ‘rod’ for the rapists insisting only corporal punishment could bring such culprits on track.
Reacting to the Monday’s beastly incident of gang-rape where a tribal woman was “disciplined” a la khap style for courting a boy outside her community, Narayanan a former police officer himself said, “I think such people should be handed out immediate corporal punishment, to set an example.”
A 20-year-old woman was gang-raped on Tuesday night following orders from village elders — at labhpur in Birbhum district about 200 km from Kolkata — who directed the poor woman either to cough up `50,000 for the “sin” or get gang-raped. She had since been admitted to the Suri district hospital where her condition was said to be stable.
Narayanan’s seriousness, however, found no reflection in the actions of the Bengal Police which did not seek police remand of the accused who were sent by the local court to 14 days’ judicial custody.
This, even as Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya wondered, “why the public prosecutor was absent from the courtIJ”
Marxist leader Md Salim said, “Instead of celebrating festivals the Chief Minister should have rushed to the spot.” Bengal has in the past couple of years seen a noticeable spurt in incidents of crimes against women.
State Minister Shahsi Panja who spoke to the woman later said, “She is a brave girl and seems to be recovering fast. I have spoken to her and assured her all help.”
The woman reportedly told the Minister that some of her tormentors were as old as her father and some others were much younger to her.
State Minister Subrato Mukherjee said he was disturbed by the growing incidents of rape and advocated “a nationwide campaign against it.” Something should be done at the national level to prevent such incidents, he said.
Sympathies apart, a similar incident took place at Sainthia in the same district barely a day after the labhpur rape case with a schoolteacher allegedly raping her student, police said. The teacher had since been arrested.