Mamata says Bengal govt will amend existing laws to ensure death penalty to rapists; questions CBI over R G Kar probe

Banerjee said that she would sit for dharna outside Raj Bhavan here if the governor delays in giving assent to the amended bill or forwards it to the President for ratification.

Kolkata: As the outrage over the sexual assault and murder of a doctor in Kolkata singed her Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday played to the gallery, promising to convene a special session of the state assembly next week to amend existing laws to ensure capital punishment for the convicted rapists.

She and her heir apparent, Abhishek Banerjee, the general secretary of the Trinamool Congress, questioned the progress made by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which took over the probe from the Kolkata Police just four days after the young doctor was found raped and murdered at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in the city. “Where is the justice? The CBI must give updates on its probe,” she said.

“The CBI must answer why it could not yet arrest Sandip Ghosh although 14 days passed since it took over the investigation,” the youth icon of the TMC echoed, attempting to blunt the criticism against the ruling party for its purported links with the former RGKMCH principal, who drew flak after the rape and murder of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor – not only for allegedly making a cover-up attempt after her body was found but also for alleged corruption at the medical college and hospital during his tenure.

Mamata and Abhishek addressed a rally on the occasion of the foundation day of the student wing of the ruling party.

The TMC supremo dedicated the rally to the slain doctor and said that the party would launch a movement across the state from Saturday demanding that the Union Government should pass a law ensuring capital punishment for convicted rapists. “We will pass the amended bill in a special session of the assembly next week. We will then send it to the governor for his nod. We will stage dharna outside Raj Bhavan if he sits on the bill,” Banerjee said, adding that the women would lead the sit-in demonstration in front of the official residence of the governor.

She had recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressing the need for stringent central legislation to deal with rape and murder and seeking special fast-track courts for speedy trial in cases of such heinous crimes. The Centre in response stated that West Bengal had been allocated 123 fast-track courts to hear cases of rape and child abuse, but many of them were not functional yet.

The chief minister, however, criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for trying to reap political dividends from the rape and murder of the young doctor. She alleged that some of her political rivals were planning to trigger unrest in West Bengal to dislodge the TMC government just like the recent regime change in Bangladesh. “If West Bengal is set on fire, Assam and the rest of the northeastern region, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Delhi will also be affected,” she said, rejecting the BJP’s demand for her resignation. “I will ask the BJP why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not resign, owning up to his failure to prevent atrocities and sexual attacks on women in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, and Assam.”

Apart from the doctors and the civil society organisations, the BJP and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) also took to the streets to seek justice for the deceased doctor, criticising the TMC government. The BJP extended its support to a protest march to the state secretariat by a hitherto unknown student organisation on Tuesday. The saffron party also planned to continue the stir demanding the resignation of the TMC supremo from the office of the state’s chief minister.