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Nadia minor was ‘gangraped’ at TMC leader’s son’s party by at least 3 men, finds CBI probe

CBI also arrested 3 more suspects Sunday. A charge sheet is likely to be filed soon. Son of a Trinamool gram panchayat leader is prime suspect in the case.

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Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the alleged gang rape — leading to death — of a minor in West Bengal’s Nadia district earlier this month, has found that at least three men had raped the girl on 4 April, ThePrint has learnt.

The case had landed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a controversy, after she was quoted as saying, “Has she been raped, or was she pregnant, or was it a love affair? Has the media enquired? I heard it was a case of love affair.”

Sources in the investigation agency confirmed Monday that they are investing the case as one of “gang rape”.

According to the sources, investigation has revealed that the minor was intoxicated at the time of the alleged crime, and had also consumed marijuana before the alleged rape. She was later allegedly dumped by the road and picked up by a woman on a scooty and dropped home.

The CBI, which took over the investigation based on a Calcutta High Court order of 12 April, also arrested three more suspects Sunday. A charge sheet is likely to be filed soon.

The prime accused in the case, a Trinamool Congress gram panchayat member’s son Brajgopal Goalain (as the high court order identifies him, not ‘Goala’ as earlier reported by the media) and his friend Prabhakar Poddar had been arrested by the state police before the case was handed over to the CBI. A day after the high court transferred the case to the central agency, a three-member CBI team had reached Nadia’s Hanskhali Police Station to take charge of investigation. It made its first arrest in the case on 16 April.


Also read: Political violence, internal factions — Mamata Banerjee’s TMC is its own opposition in Bengal


‘Awaiting DNA reports’

According to the minor’s family, she had gone to the house of local Trinamool Congress leader and Garapota Gram Panchayat member, Samar, to attend his son Brajgopal Goalain’s birthday party.

“Our daughter was bleeding profusely and had severe abdominal pain after she came back from the party and before we could take her to hospital, she died,” the Class 9 student’s mother has been quoted as saying by the media. “From the sequence of events and after talking to the people present at the party, we are sure she was gangraped.”

According to the mother, she had rushed to a local quack for medicines when she found her daughter’s condition deteriorating, but the girl died by the time she returned. Her body was cremated early on 5 April, and the family has alleged that local residents forced them to do the last rites quickly.

An FIR was filed based on a complaint made by the minor’s father, invoking sections 375 (rape), 302 (murder), 204 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as well as provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The family has also alleged that the woman who dropped the girl home “threatened” them to not make a police complaint. While details of her involvement in the case is not yet known, the woman is being questioned by the CBI and her role investigated, ThePrint has learnt.

Interestingly, sources claimed that when the CBI took over the investigation, it found that the FIR that was registered in the case by the local police had the victim’s father’s name as the second accused in the crime.

According to senior CBI officials probing the case, they are awaiting DNA reports to complete the probe. CBI sources said they had seized a blood-stained mattress and saree from accused Goalain’s house for forensic tests and had also collected samples from the crematorium and victim’s house to match the DNA.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


Also read: CBI makes first arrests in Birbhum killings case, nabs 4 suspects who had ‘fled’ to Mumbai


 

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