The death of a teenager who had protested against her father being beaten up at a kangaroo court at Dhupguri, in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, turned into a political controversy on Wednesday with the Left parties launching a major movement on the issue.
The father of the 15-year-old has lodged a complaint at a local police station, alleging that she was raped and killed. The body was found near the railway tracks on Tuesday morning.
The police have arrested one person in connection with the incident. The girl’s father had borrowed a power tiller and a dispute had cropped up over its rent. According to his family, the girl had protested when he was being beaten up at the salishi sabha (kangaroo court) on Monday. Local leaders of the Trinamool Congress were present at the kangaroo court. The girl went missing soon afterwards.
“The family believes that the girl was abducted, raped and killed,” Mamata Roy, Dhupguri CPI(M) MLA told The Hindu over telephone. The student wing of the CPI(M) has called for a strike in the Dhupguri area.
