Supreme Court issues notice to West Bengal govt over gang rape of tribal woman

New Delhi – The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the West Bengal government over the gang rape of a tribal woman in the Birbhum district.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the gang rape, the Supreme Court directed the district judge of Birbhum to visit the spot where the gang rape took place and file a report before it within a week.

Tribal woman gang-raped on a platform for all to see

Cops in Bengal’s Birbhum district on Thursday arrested 14 men, including a village headman who had ordered the gang-rape of a 20-year-old tribal woman for alleged sexual relations with a man from outside her community. As tempers flared across the state and another anti-Mamata Banerjee wave over rising gender crime swelled, the chief minister replaced the district police chief C Sudhakar with Darjeeling SP S N Gupta.

Even as the administration claimed it had acted promptly, more gruesome details emerged. Villagers told TOI on Thursday that after the kangaroo court ordered her to be sexually savaged, the woman was placed on a raised bamboo platform so that the gang-rape was viewed by the entire village, children included.

“If the family does not pay up, go and enjoy yourselves,” is what headman and now prime accused Boloi Murdy allegedly told the men.

The woman’s family alleged she and her lover, a man from a nearby village, were tied up in Murdy’s courtyard, where a kangaroo court was held and handed down the punishment – a Rs 50,000 fine for the man and gang rape for the woman. Some villagers told TOI that the woman’s cries rent the air all night but no one stepped forward to help her. Even her family, who lives 50 metres away, could not rescue her.