Rape survivors of Bengal's post-poll violence move SC, narrate horror

Horrific details of alleged gangrape have emerged after multiple women from West Bengal, including a minor girl, moved the Supreme Court, seeking a detailed probe into incidents of violence in the state during and after the recently held assembly elections.

One of the applicants, a 60-year-old woman, revealed that she was gang-raped in front of her six-year-old grandson, while her daughter-in-law was being beaten up.

In her application she alleges, “On May 4 around midnight at 12.30 am, five persons who were party workers of the Trinamool Congress came to the applicant’s house and forced their way in. The applicant was slapped, beaten, handcuffed and ties to her bed, as the criminals forced themselves on her”.

The application added that the woman was not only raped but also poisoned. “The chain of events occurred in the presence of the applicant’s six-year-old grandson,”

Another 17-year-old girl alleged, "a group of four men dragged her to a nearby jungle, where they assaulted and raped her one by one for more than an hour."

She claimed that she was “attacked and gang raped solely for her family’s political affiliations and religious beliefs”.

She, too, alleged police inaction and added that she was pressured to take back the FIR. The application alleged that local TMC leaders threatened her family.

These women claim that the police and law enforcement agencies in the state "instead of conducting a fair investigation and sympathising with them, are in fact "trying to shield the accused." They claim that the police had "tried to dismiss the heinous attacks as small and sporadic incidents".

In their pleas before the Supreme Court, these women have sought a court-monitored CBI/SIT investigation into their cases.