Kolkata, Jun 30 (PTI) The 'fact-finding team' constituted by the BJP in connection with the alleged gang rape at a law college in Kolkata last week said on Monday that despite Kolkata Police Commissioner's assurance of strict action against the accused the panel couldn't trust the police to conduct a proper investigation which the case merits.
The team, comprising Satpal Singh, Meenakshi Lekhi, Biplab Kumar Deb and Manan Kumar Mishra, which arrived in Kolkata on Monday morning and met the city police chief Manoj Kumar Verma and authorities of the South Calcutta Law College, questioned why a person with criminal background be appointed as staff of the college.
The team was referring to the casual appointment of Monojit Mishra, one of the prime accused in the gang rape case, whose criminal antecedents of sexual abuse and violence were allegedly ignored by the police and college authorities granting him impunity.
"Criminals are appointed in colleges as ad-hoc teachers or staff without any proper verification. There is no history sheet of the prime accused, who was booked earlier, and had been appointed through backdoors in violation of the rules set by the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the education ministry. This pertains to the criminalisation of academics as well," said Lekhi while advocating capital punishment for the accused.
Referring to last year's rape and murder of a doctor inside a medical college in Kolkata, the panel lashed out at West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, alleging that hands of ruling party members are almost inevitably found behind every such crime.
They also alleged that women in Bengal were the most insecure in the country, and it was tough to register an FIR with the police in cases of torture against them.
"The women of Bengal are not safe here. There are so many back-to-back incidents of atrocities against them. It's a shame that such incidents of crime against women take place in a state where the CM is herself a woman," Manan Kumar Mishra told reporters here.
"We have met the Kolkata Police Commissioner today and he assured us of strict action against the prime accused. But in a state where registering an FIR with the police becomes tough for a rape victim, we cannot rely on his assurances," he said.
Mishra, who had earlier served as the chairman of the Bar Council of India, also expressed doubts on whether the victim and her family were "pressured" into not meeting the fact-finding team.
"While on one hand, we doubt the right will of the police to get to the bottom of this menace, we also failed to understand whether the victim and her family members are under any pressure and why they were not allowed to come out on the front," he said.
The team went to the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lalbazar and held a meeting with CP Manoj Verma before paying a visit to the South Calcutta Law College, the site of the alleged crime and met the vice principal of the institution.
The team, though, were neither allowed to get inside the actual scene of the crime nor take photographs, and the members had to make do by taking a casual stock of the situation there.
Earlier, members of the team alleged that they were not allowed to meet the city's top cop despite them seeking a prior appointment with him.
Former Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb also questioned how a TMC MLA was "appointing" a history-sheeter" in a law college.
"This is a state-sponsored crime. This is happening under the leadership of the TMC. This is surprising how a TMC MLA was backing one history-sheeter.
I think TMC MLA Ashok Deb should be questioned. We want to warn Mamata Banerjee for allowing crime against women," Deb said.
"Despite being run by a woman chief minister, West Bengal is witnessing one ghastly incident after another in colleges and medical colleges in the state," Deb earlier said.
"Women are not safe in West Bengal... even a law student is not safe," he added.
Deb also alleged that the team did not receive permission for an audience with the state chief secretary and stated that the team will later submit a report to BJP national president J P Nadda.