Dad insult at meeting, girl found dead

TT, Jalpaiguri, 2 Sept. 2014: The father of a schoolgirl has filed a police complaint alleging that a Trinamul civic councillor and her husband were responsible for his daughter’s murder.

Initial details from neighbours and the father’s police complaint suggest that the girl had gone to a meeting called by a Trinamul leader with her father and was insulted there.

This morning, the girl’s naked body was found near railway tracks close to the town where she lived.

“The girl’s father had taken a power tiller from his neighbour Anil Roy on rent to till his agricultural land some months back. He, however, had not paid the rent to Anil. This prompted Anil to seek help of local Trinamul leaders,” a neighbour said.

Yesterday evening, a meeting was called by Chandrakanta Roy, a local Trinamul leader and former councillor. His wife Namita is a councillor now. Trinamul has denied the involvement of any of its leaders at the meeting.

Some residents labelled the meeting as a “salishi”, although the place where it happened is a municipal area. Salishi sabhas or kangaroo courts, which are illegal, are generally held in villages.

“At the meeting, the girl’s father was insulted and assaulted by Anil and some others. His daughter was accompanying him. She was also insulted,” said Dipak Roy, a local resident. “Many people had assembled to witness the meeting which ended without any decision.”

Although, his party denied the presence of any leader at the meeting, Chandrakanta acknowledged he had called such a meeting.

“The girl’s father was not paying the power tiller’s rent to his neighbour. To settle the dispute, we had convened the salishi. However, neither the girl nor her father were insulted or assaulted during the meeting,” Chandrakanta said. “The man was told to make the payment immediately but he expressed inability.”

This evening, the father filed a police complaint, in which he named 13 persons including Chandrakanta and Anil.

The other 11 accused are local Trinamul workers and supporters, police sources said.

“I was insulted and assaulted at the meeting. Also, my daughter suddenly went missing during the meeting. It was nothing but a conspiracy of these people who took away my girl, killed her and dumped her body on the rail tracks to present it like an accident,” the father said. “Police should arrest them and take necessary action.”

Kunal Agarwal, the superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri, said officers had gone in search of Chandrakanta and Anil “but could not find them. They (the officers) are trying to collect all possible information about the case.”

Sourav Chakraborty, the Jalpaiguri district Trinamul president, said: “None of our party leaders or workers was involved in any salishi sabha. As far as we know, the girl has committed suicide and police are investigating the case.”

Kangaroo courts, mostly held in villages, have been known to use extreme measures to embarrass the so-called accused.

Although illegal, they are sometimes attended by elected representatives.

One Malda Congress gram panchayat member’s left hand’s fingers were chopped off during a scuffle at a kangaroo court called to settle a village quarrel last month.

At Subalpur in Birbhum, a girl was gang-raped on the order of the village headman at a similar kangaroo court. The girl’s offence was that she was in a relationship with a man from a different community.

In June this year, villagers in Birbhum tried to settle a case of a schoolgirl’s rape by offering three pots of country liquor to her family.

The girl’s father went to police eventually as the three accused could not pay Rs 25,000 each as he had demanded.

In April, an 18-year-old girl in Murshidabad who had eloped with a married youth allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling after being told in a kangaroo court last night to accept Rs 10,000 from the man's family and end the relationship.

Days before the the Murshidabad incident, in Malda a young mother who had alleged a rape attempt committed suicide after being taunted and humiliated at a kangaroo court that asked the accused merely to seek forgiveness.