Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, facing criticism over the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital, vigorously defended the state’s police force on Tuesday by highlighting unresolved but equally horrific assaults on women in other states.
She cited the 2020 rape of a 20-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, the 2013 rape and brutal murder of a college student in Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, and the recent rape of a child at a government-run hospital in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
“There are abnormally high crime rates against women in states like UP and Gujarat, where justice is lacking. But in Bengal, women will find justice in the courts,” she asserted in the Assembly.
“In the Kamduni case (the North 24 Parganas rape), we demanded capital punishment, but the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s decision, and the matter is still pending. No one speaks about what happened in Unnao, and the Hathras victim never received justice,” she said.
Ms. Banerjee’s pointed remarks came as her Trinamool Congress introduced a new law that equates rape with murder, proposing the death penalty or life imprisonment as punishment. She explained that the proposed Aparajita law is designed to ensure faster investigations and stricter penalties.
The Aparajita law will “close loopholes” in the laws passed by the central government, Ms. Banerjee remarked, taking a jab at the much-publicized set of three new criminal laws introduced by the center.
During her speech, which was met with silence from the opposition BJP—who have been vocal in criticizing the Chief Minister on this issue but have shown tentative support for the new legislation—Ms. Banerjee also expressed her condolences to the family of the doctor from RG Kar Hospital who was raped and murdered.
“We want justice from the CBI… The CBI should hang the criminal,” Ms. Banerjee stated, emphasizing the ongoing conflict between the Kolkata Police and the federal agency. This tension arose after the Calcutta High Court overruled the Chief Minister last month and transferred the case to the CBI, just days after Ms. Banerjee had given the Kolkata Police a seven-day deadline to solve the case.
