Even as a West Bengal Minister’s statement on the murder after alleged gang rape of a woman near Barasat kicked up a row, the police on Monday sought further details from doctors as post mortem was not conclusive on sexual assault.
“The post mortem report did not mention rape. So we have sought additional information from the team of doctors,” a police official said.
On Saturday evening, the middle-aged woman was murdered and her husband became a victim of an acid attack by the perpetrators. The family alleged that she was gang-raped before being murdered. One person arrested in connection with the incident worked in the same brick kiln near Barasat in North 24 Parganas district, where the couple were employed as labourers. The police are looking for others.
Authorities at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital here said the condition of the slain woman’s husband, who is in the intensive therapy unit, was stable.
Meanwhile during the day, a group of women of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) protesting against the Barasat violence and the Delhi gang rapemarched to Raj Bhavan. The police arrested 31 women for violating prohibitory orders.
Also the remarks made by Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim that the Barasat incident ‘is the result of a family feud, but the law will take its own course,” drew widespread criticism from the Opposition as well as civil society as the matter is still under investigation.
