Arson after rape & kill charge

TT, Nov. 23: A protest over the alleged rape and murder of a Jalpaiguri teenager in Bhutan today snowballed into an arson attack and road blockade that refused to die down till police fired tear gas.

Local people in Jalpaiguri, near the Chamurchi tea estate, also said the police fired blanks to disperse the protestors, but the force did not confirm this.

The protest today started after news circulated in the morning that a 15-year-old girl, who was working as a domestic help in Bhutan, had been allegedly raped and murdered in that country.

Chamurchi, where the protest happened, is close to the Bhutan border. Samtse is in Bhutan.

The charges of rape and murder were made by the girl’s father, who works in a tea garden. However, till late tonight, the family had not filed an FIR.

At least five police officers were injured when they went to lift a road blockade on Samtse-Chamurchi road as the villagers threw stones at them. In the arson attack in the morning, at least seven vehicles were burnt.

Police have said nothing about the rape allegation yet. A post-mortem is yet to be done as the police got the body late in the night. No arrests have been made for the arson.

The girl was working in a teacher’s house in Samtse, which is close to the India-Bhutan border, for the past six months, her father said.

“Yesterday evening, some people from Bhutan came and informed us that our daughter had fallen ill. We rushed and found that she had died. Soon, some officials of Bhutan police told us that they would help us bring the body back and today early morning, we arrived with her body,” the father said.

He did not say where the family found the girl’s body. “I suspect my daughter was raped and murdered,” he added.

Local people blocked the Samtse-Chamurchi road in Jalpaiguri. The blockade was forcibly lifted around 10.15pm.

Late tonight, villagers set more vehicles ablaze.