Mob lynches man over allegation of woman's rape and murder in Bengal village

Kolkata: A day after an angry mob set fire to a police outpost in West Bengal over the alleged rape-murder of a nine-year-old girl, another incident of mob violence was reported in the state on Sunday when a man was lynched in Purba Medinipur district after a woman, whom he allegedly raped and poisoned, died early in the day.

Amid outrage over the death of the nine-year-old girl, CM Mamata Banerjee sought the accused to be booked under Pocso Act.

The lynching incident happened at Patashpur village. The victim’s neighbours alleged that he was involved in the rape and poisoning of the woman on Friday. After the woman died on Sunday, angry villagers dragged the man out of his home and beat him. The police rescued the man and took him to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries.

The outburst of public anger occurred just a day after villagers in Joynagar, South 24 Parganas district, set ablaze the police outpost and assaulted the personnel, whom they accused of not acting on the complaint of the father of a nine-year-old girl who was found dead on Saturday.

The junior doctors of West Bengal also continued the agitation demanding justice for their colleague, who was raped and murdered at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, run by the state government, in Kolkata on August 9 – an incident that triggered widespread outrage across the state. Though the junior doctors called off the second round of the cease-work stir on Friday, they decided to continue the agitation, with six of them going on a fast-unto-death protest at the heart of the capital city since Saturday. Two other junior doctors joined the fast-unto-death protest on Sunday. They vowed to continue the fast till the state government does not accept and fulfill their 10 demands, including an expeditious investigation into the rape and murder of their colleague, the resignation of the health secretary of the state government given the rampant corruption and culture of intimidation in the healthcare institutions and adequate security of the junior doctors at the hospitals and medical colleges.

The man, who was lynched by a mob of villagers in the Purba Medinipur district, was not arrested by police, but his neighbours alleged that he was involved in the rape and poisoning of a woman on Friday. The woman died in a hospital on Sunday. The angry villagers, led by local women, dragged the man out of his home and beat him severely. Police rescued the critically wounded man and sent him to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

“Even if a few incidents of crime take place in West Bengal, they trigger a hue and cry. Yes, such crimes should trigger uproar. But such incidents do not spark outrage in other states,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday lauding the state’s police personnel while inaugurating a few Durga Pujas across the state virtually.

She also said that the police should register a case in connection with the alleged rape and murder of the nine-year-old girl at Joynagar in South 24 Parganas district under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. “The culprits should get capital punishment within three months. Crime is crime; there is no religion or caste. Strong action should be taken against the criminals,” said the chief minister.

The parents of the child and their neighbours alleged that she could have been saved if the cops posted at the local outpost had acted fast on the complaint filed after she had gone missing. The Calcutta High Court also ordered the police to register a case under the POCSO. The court, hearing a petition filed by the parents of the schoolgirl, also ordered a second post-mortem examination of her body to be conducted by the doctors of the AIIMS Kalyani at their own institute or at Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital.