Adding insult to injury, the ruling Trinamool Congress and the police had resorted to arm-twisting tactics, threatening the victim of custodial violence in Birbhum torture case. The woman relative of a BJP supporter who was allegedly brutally tortured by senior Birbhum police officials during a midnight raid on Friday, complained that she was receiving threats from the men in uniform and the Trinamool Congress to withdraw the case or face consequences.
In fact, the victim who is the aunt of a BJP supporter and was currently at large after being "falsely" implicated in a criminal case suddenly left the district hospital in which she had been admitted after the torture in which she received multiple injuries and stinging nettle leaves were rubbed on her private parts. She left the hospital barely hours before she was to depose before a magistrate, sources said adding she was currently in hiding to avoid further attacks.
In a midnight raid, a team of police officials including a local DSP, circle inspector, officer-in-charge and two constables allegedly took the woman from her house at Sattor in Birbhum which had of late witnessed regular skirmishes between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress. The police picked her up after they could not find her nephew, a BJP supporter, against whom a "false" case had been lodged by local Trinamool leader SK Mustafa.
She was taken in the police jeep to a nearby jungle where her fingers were fractured and her hands were slashed besides her private part was rubbed with stinging nettle leaves. The torture was perpetrated at the behest of the local Trinamool leadership including SK Mustafa and SK Akbar. The former was a prime accused in the Sagar Ghosh murder case which was currently pending in the Supreme Court in demand for a CBI probe.
After the Calcutta HC ordered a CID investigation into the alleged torture of the woman "they have started sending strange people to our house. They are asking us to withdraw the case in lieu of Rs14 lakh and a Government job" said relative of the victim adding the woman was unmoved and would continue to fight the case "till we are alive."
When contacted district SP Alok Rajoria said he was unaware of any such threats adding "if they ask me for police protection then definitely we shall look into the matter." Earlier, Chief Justice Manjula Chellur taking suo motu cognizance had ordered the State authorities to provide adequate security to the woman. Meanwhile, taking a bizarre stand that indicated his attempts to separately absolve the ruling outfit from the crime, State Minister Purnendu Basu said there was hardly anything the Government could do overnight to discipline the police. "They have been like this since the colonial period and it is difficult to change their habit," the Minister said adding it would be wrong to implicate the TMC in everything.