Three held for girl death

TT, Sept. 3: Three persons, including a minor boy, were arrested in connection with the death of a 14-year-old girl in Jalpaiguri yesterday after her father had been allegedly insulted and assaulted at a salishi called by a local Trinamul leader.

Trinamul leader Chandrakanta Roy, whose wife is a councillor in Jalpaiguri town, is yet to be traced. One of the arrested persons had allegedly urged him to call the salishi.

“We have arrested three persons, including a minor and Anil Roy, the girl’s neighbour. All of them have been handed over to the GRP,” Kunal Agarwal, superintendent of police, Jalpaiguri, said. “The girl’s body has been sent for post-mortem.”

Yesterday, the naked and mutilated body of the Class-X girl was found near the railway tracks close to Jalpaiguri.

The girl went missing on Monday evening while attending the kangaroo court convened by Chandrakanta, a local Trinamul leader and a former councillor of Jalpaiguri town.

The salishi was called after Anil told Chandrakanta that the girl’s father was not paying him Rs 8,000, the rent of a power tiller that he had taken.

At the salishi, the girl’s father said he would not be able to pay the money after which, he was allegedly insulted and assaulted by Anil and others. The girl who was accompanying her father went missing suddenly. Yesterday, the father filed a complaint naming Chandrakanta, Anil and 11 others.

Apart from Anil, the other two arrested are a 14-year-old boy and Fazlul Haque, a local resident. They have been booked under Sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 376 (rape).

“We suspect it to be a case of rape and murder but there is also a chance of the girl committing suicide after seeing her father being insulted and assaulted in public. But we can only comment after we receive the post-mortem report,” a GRP officer said.

In the complaint, the girl’s father had said the accused persons had conspired against him. “They took away my daughter from the area (where the salishi was being held) with wrong intentions, murdered her and dumped her body on the tracks to make it look like an accident,” he had said.

Jalpaiguri district Trinamul leaders, including president Sourav Chakraborty, had said the girl had committed suicide and no one from the party was involved.

Today, schools and colleges in the area were shut after the SFI called a 24-hour student strike to protest the death. Some educational institutions in Jalpaiguri town were also shut.