SUCI activists Tuesday protest in front of Raj Bhawan in Kolkata over the Nadia gangrape and murder. (Express Photo) AS POLITICAL leaders and police officers went in and out of their kuchcha house in a village in Nadia district on Tuesday, steaming under a day-long power cut, the father of the 14-year-old whose suspected rape and murder is at the heart of a political storm in West Bengal struggled to find answers through his tears.
What is known is that the girl went to a birthday party hosted by Sohail alias Braja Gopal Gayali, a former schoolmate and son of a local Trinamool Congress strongman on April 4; was brought home bleeding by some unknown people; and died within hours. Around sunrise the next morning, she was cremated without a death certificate or a police complaint.
A week later, as the Opposition raised questions about the hurried cremation and police inaction, two arrests were made, including of Braja Gopal. Hours later, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised doubts over what had happened, asking whether the 14-year-old had been raped or was having an affair and got pregnant, nodding for confirmation from the DGP who shared the stage with her. On Tuesday, a police officer in Nadia told The Indian Express that they were probing the role of the accused, but “involvement doesn’t always mean penetration”.
The enormity of what he is up against lies heavy on the 50-year-old, who refuses to talk about Banerjee’s statement regarding the youngest of his three daughters. On Tuesday, he stayed silent through TMC MP Mahua Moitra’s visit.
The 14-year-old was in Class 9. Braja Gopal, 21, the son of TMC panchayat member Samarendra Gayali, was in the same school as her. They reportedly became friends around six months ago.
The father says he did not know of the birthday party that day. The 14-year-old left home on her cycle around 4 pm, promising her mother to return early. Around 7.30 pm, a woman dropped her back, on her own cycle. She was bleeding.
The mother says she gave her lemon water, thinking the bleeding was on account of periods, and that the 14-year-old went to sleep. However, her condition deteriorated, and around 4 am, the mother arrived in panic at the house of a local quack, Samir Biswas, seeking medicines to help her. She died soon after.
The father says when the 14-year-old left for the birthday party, he was away at work. “The woman who dropped her back said they had found her by the side of the road. When I returned home, I found her in bed. Her mother didn’t say anything. Later, she told me the girl wasn’t feeling well… After her death, I don’t remember anything,” he says, adding that he acted mechanically. “I was under a lot of pressure. They (the villagers) told me to cremate, I did.”
On why they filed a complaint only on April 10 and did not take the girl to a hospital, the 50-year-old says: “We are poor people.”
While Braja Gopal was arrested on Monday, his friend Prabhakar Poddar (20) was held on Tuesday. Additional SP, Ranaghat, Rupantar Sengupta, told The Indian Express: “Primarily we suspect the involvement of more than one person. Involvement doesn’t always mean penetration. Gang rape section has been imposed.”
Sengupta said that while they were looking at how the body was cremated without a death certificate, “primarily, villagers have said that this is routine”.
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