State panel chief insult finger at national panel chief

On March 18, 13-year-old girl, was raped by three local men at classroom in Gazole block

Police intervene as alleged supporters of Trinamul and the BJP workers get into a scuffle at Gazole in Malda on Saturday during the visit of NCPCR and SCPCR teams: Soumya De Sarkar

TT Bureau   |   Calcutta/Malda   |    02.04.23  : The chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Sudeshna Roy, has lodged a complaint against her counterpart in the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Priyank Kanoongo, for misbehaving with her, "hurling insults" at her and outraging "her position and modesty by continually insulting" her before everyone in Malda. 

Roy lodged a complaint against Kanoongo with the commissioner of Calcutta police and deputy commissioner of police of the area in the city where a seven-year-old girl was allegedly tortured and murdered, and with police of the area where the girl lived. 

However, the officer in charge of the police station has been transferred and posted to the reserve force, following a complaint by the NCPCR chairperson.

A senior officer of the police headquarters in Calcutta said that on Friday, a team from the NCPCR comprising the chairperson, and member secretary Rupali Banerjee Singh, visited the local police station in connection with the child's murder.

“All kinds of assistance, pilot, security, etc. were provided to them by the police during their visit. However, a written complaint has been received from Kanoongo that in the police station the proceedings of inquiry were recorded by a body camera. When he wanted to take away that camera he was physically stopped and the camera was forcibly taken from him," the senior officer said.

"On the basis of Kanoongo's written statement, a case has been recorded...," he added. 

According to Roy's complaint, she had gone for a follow-up inquiry of the alleged child murder case in Calcutta on Friday. 

"Today (Saturday), the NCPCR was on a similar mission at Gazole in Malda. I went there to cooperate with him as I had already taken cognisance of the case," Roy's complaint reads.

On March 18, a 13-year-old girl, was raped by three local men at a classroom in Gazole block. The trio were arrested. 

Roy said that the NCPCR team locked the room while they spoke with the girl and her family. As she tried to enter, the NCPCR chairman allegedly shouted "Get out". 

“I told him that I had come here as a 'sibling commission' ... to participate in the inquiry, he jumped up and shouted at me saying 'Get out, who are you? You are a nuisance...'," she wrote in the complaint. 

He allegedly ordered the police to bring the parents of the girl to the police station and remove Roy, she wrote. 

During the altercation between Kanoongo and Roy, Trinamul and BJP workers who were there resorted to slogans and clashes. Police had to struggle to separate both sides.  

Roy said Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury, a BJP MLA from Malda, was with Kanoongo.  "Why was the BJP MLA with him when he spoke with the family?" asked Roy.