Bengal Bandh | State to amend laws, ensure death penalty to rapists: Mamata

BJP workers clashed with the police at several places across West Bengal on Wednesday as they tried to enforce a 12-hour shutdown, which had a mixed impact in the state.

Several BJP leaders, including former MPs Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya and MLA Agnimitra Paul, were detained for blocking roads since the morning.

Ganguly and Paul were detained from south Kolkata’s Gariahat area when they were urging traders to down their shutters and requesting people to support the bandh.

Chatterjee was detained from Shyambazar when she was leading a demonstration, while Bhattacharya was detained from Wipro More in Salt Lake Sector 5.

Kolkata’s Ward 50 councillor Sajal Ghosh was detained from his residence in Sealdah shortly after BJP workers scuffled with TMC supporters while trying to enforce the bandh in the nearby Koley Market.

His wife Tania Ghosh then took out a rally, alleging that police held him without any warrant.

Later, Deputy Commissioner (Central) Indira Mukherjee said Ghosh was arrested for making provocative comments.

State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar, a Union minister, led a procession at Baguihati in the northern fringes of the city but had an altercation with the police who tried to stop him. Former MP Debasree Choudhury and hundreds of party workers accompanied him.

Following the demonstration, Majumdar went to central Kolkata and blocked the CR Avenue outside the state BJP headquarters along with his supporters. He had heated arguments with senior police officers who swung into action to clear the arterial road.

At Alipurduar, BJP MP Manoj Tigga was arrested for allegedly enforcing the bandh.

An official of the Eastern Railway said bandh supporters blocked tracks at 49 places under its jurisdiction in the state.

While the blockades were lifted at most places, it was continuing in nine stations, mostly in the Sealdah South section, he said.

BJP workers demonstrated at the Bongaon station in North 24-Parganas, Gocharan station in South 24 Parganas, and the Murshidabad station in support of the bandh. Tension was palpable at the Barrackpore station in North 24 Parganas as BJP supporters and TMC workers came face to face.

At Bhatpara in North 24-Parganas district, BJP alleged that two of its workers were shot at.

Police, however, claimed that the two men were beaten up by some people outside Anglo India Jute Mill.

The injured persons were initially taken to the Bhatpara State General Hospital, but were later shifted to a hospital in Kolkata for better treatment, they said.

Former BJP MP Arjun Singh and Jagaddal’s TMC MLA Somnath Shyam along with their supporters reached the area after the incident, triggering tensions. Police intervened and brought the situation under control.

“Miscreants owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress fired the shots, if police are not around we will show TMC the people’s power,” Singh said.

Shyam countered by saying that the BJP leader was trying to incite violence in the area.

Picketing by BJP supporters on the roads led to the disruption of public transport services in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Siliguri and Malda in northern West Bengal, and in Purulia, Bankura and some other places in the southern part of the state.

Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari led a protest march in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur, his home district.

In Malda, activists of the TMC and BJP engaged in a brawl over the blocking of a road. Police intervened to disperse the two groups.

In her first comment on the PGT doctor’s rape and murder at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, President Droupadi Murmu has told news agency PTI that she is “dismayed and horrified”.

Even as students, doctors and citizens continue to protest in Kolkata, criminals remain on the prowl elsewhere, said President Murmu.

No civilised society can allow daughters and sisters to be subjected to such atrocities, she said told PTI.

Very often, a “deplorable mindset” sees a woman as a lesser human being, less powerful, less capable, less intelligent, she said.

“Let us deal with this perversion in a comprehensive manner to curb it right at the beginning,” President Murmu said.

It has been 12 years since the case of Nirbhaya (in Delhi). In this time, countless rapes have been forgotten by society; this “collective amnesia” is obnoxious, she added.

Only societies scared to face history resort to collective amnesia; it is time for India to face history squarely, she asserted, saying "enough is enough".

Demanding the enactment of stricter anti-rape laws by the Centre, TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee said he will move a private member’s bill in the Lok Sabha.

The TMC national general secretary said that if the Centre “fails” to enact a stricter law that would ensure quick trial and sentencing of those found guilty, he will lead protests in Delhi.

“Our only demand is stricter anti-rape legislation,” the TMC MP said, addressing the party’s students’ wing Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s rally on its foundation day in Kolkata.

“If the central government does not enact this law, I will move a private member’s bill for the new law,” he said.

Abhishek said the TMC was demanding justice and quick trial and sentencing in the rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

He said if this government could impose a lockdown or demonetisation in a day, why can’t they introduce stricter anti-rape laws?

The TMC leader said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had herself said that the probe into the rape-murder of the postgraduate trainee doctor would be handed over to the CBI if the Kolkata Police could not deliver within a specified period, but the agency has not been able to deliver so far despite being handed over the case by the Calcutta High Court on August 13.

Abhishek claimed that the CBI had “failed” to bring to book the criminals in the probes it was already conducting in the state, starting from the theft of the Nobel medal of Rabindranath Tagore in 2004.

He asked why the CBI has not been able to arrest Sandip Ghosh, who was the principal of RG Kar Medical College when the rape-murder took place on August 9.

Ghosh has been called to the CBI office for questioning for 11 consecutive days (till Tuesday).

Abhishek claimed that BJP workers had been violent in the name of protests on Tuesday.

He claimed that the people of Bengal rejected the BJP’s bandh call, maintaining that the TMCP rally had a record turnout on Wednesday.

“Do we have to learn about women’s security from BJP?” he asked, stating that the Chief Minister of Manipur, in whose state several incidents of atrocities on women took place, should resign.

He also pointed to alleged incidents of atrocities on women at Unnao and Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, stating, “Those who are seeking the resignation of Mamata Banerjee, should ask for Yogi Adityanath’s resignation.”

Abhishek urged the TMCP leadership to ensure that in the next student body elections in the colleges in the state, 55 per cent seats be reserved for women candidates.

The Calcutta High Court has dismissed a plea against the 12-hour Bangla Bandh called by the BJP since the petitioner was debarred perpetually from filing public interest litigations (PILs) before the court in a previous order.

Petitioner Sanjoy Das, who claimed to be a lawyer practising at the high court, sought that the bandh be declared illegal.

A Division Bench, presided by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, dismissed the PIL, as the court in its previous order perpetually debarred Das from presenting any PIL because the court had held that he had made false statements about himself. The bench had also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Das.

Asserting that her government has zero tolerance to incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state Assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.

Mamata said she would sit for dharna outside Raj Bhavan if the governor delays in giving assent to the amended bill or forwards it to the President for ratification.

The chief minister also said that the TMC will launch a movement from Saturday at the state’s grassroots to create pressure on the Centre to pass legislation for capital punishment of convicted rapists.

“We will pass the amended bill in a special session of the assembly next week. We will then send it to the governor for his nod. We will stage dharna outside Raj Bhavan if he sits on the bill,” she thundered from the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad foundation day rally in Kolkata.

Banerjee also urged the agitating junior doctors of Bengal, who have struck work for 20 days now to urgently consider returning to duty.

“I have remained sympathetic towards the cause of the doctors from the very beginning since they were seeking justice for their colleague. We did not take any action against them although so many days have passed since the incident. We understand your pain. But please come back to work now since patients are suffering,” she appealed.

Coming down heavily on the BJP for calling a 12-hour bandh, Banerjee said, “They called a bandh since they wanted political dividends over a dead body. The BJP is trying to exploit the emotions of ordinary people in the wake of the death of a young woman. They want to malign Bengal and plotted a conspiracy to derail the probe into her death so that the victim and her family do not get justice.”