The Calcutta High Court on Friday handed over the investigation into an alleged rape of a physically challenged woman at Pingla to IPS officer Parul Kush Jain, IGP in the Traffic Department.
Allegations of the sexual assault have been levelled at a local panchayat functionary at Pingla in Paschim Medinipur district. The incident occurred on April 11 and it is being alleged that the victim was not allowed to be taken to hospital. During the course of hearing, the court observed it feels that a “local influential person is involved in the crime”.
The court also directed senior IPS officer Damayanti Sen to oversee investigation in another rape case at Namkhana in South 24 Parganas district. It had earlier directed Ms. Sen, Special Commissioner of Kolkata police, to supervise the probe in four other rape cases in Deganga and Matia (in North 24 Parganas), Englishbazar (Malda) and Banshdroni in Kolkata.
The court’s order came during the hearing of a PIL petition seeking CBI probe in five rape cases which were reported in the past few months. In four of these cases, the court had told Ms. Sen that if she has any difficulty in supervising the investigation, she can intimate the court on the next date of hearing.
More allegations of sexual assault have surfaced at Netra and Namkhana in South 24 Parganas, Pingla in Paschim Medinipur, Santiniketan in Birbhum and Maynaguri in Jalpiaguri. These were raised by the petitioner in the course of hearing during the day. The matter will again come up for hearing on May 2.
Witness protection
On April 19, the High Court had called for the case diary of five cases, status of the investigation so far and extended protection to the witnesses of the crime. On Thursday, the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed the competent authority to pass order for the protection of witness in the rape and subsequent death of a 14–year–old at Hanskhali in Nadia.
The court permitted the filing of witness protection application before the competent authority as specified in the Witness Protection Scheme 2018. On April 12, the same bench had directed the CBI to probe the rape and death of the Class IX student at Hanskhali.
