Bengal rape-murder: Victim’s father named in FIR for destroying evidence

While the April 10 FIR charges include gang rape, only Gayali is named among the suspect assaulters. The other charges include murder, tampering with evidence and acts in furtherance of common intention, apart from under the POCSO Act.

The CBI has taken over the case now after the Calcutta High Court’s direction on Tuesday. It has registered a case on the basis of the police FIR.

A senior police officer said gang rape charges had been invoked in the case primarily as “more than two people are believed to have been present” when the girl was assaulted. “Two have been arrested, a few more are under the scanner. The victim’s father is among the accused in the FIR for causing disappearance of evidence,” the officer told The Indian Express. The second person arrested, Prabhakar Poddar, is not named in the FIR.

The relative who has been named said, “We don’t know why our names are there.”

The father of the victim, meanwhile, told reporters that he was threatened to carry out the cremation. “They (the accused) had threatened us against taking her to a doctor. After she died, they were the one who forced us to do the cremation,” he said.

According to police, after they lodged the complaint on April 10 – six days after the alleged assault – they examined 21 people, and recorded statements of 11. “How fast can an investigation progress? Two have already been arrested, we have found the involvement of more. Now because the case will be investigated by the CBI, we will extend it all cooperation,” a senior officer said.

The Indian Express saw a copy of the complaint, written in Bengali and signed by the mother of the victim. It says: “On April 4, Brija Gopal invited her (the 14-year-old) to celebrate his birthday… At around 8 pm, when I was cooking food, an unknown woman dropped her home. I could smell alcohol on my daughter’s breath. She was bleeding badly. After I saw her having severe pains, I went to get some medicine for her. When I returned home, I saw her dead. It was then that her father and uncles came and cremated her body nearby. I have a strong belief that Sohel (a.k.a Gayali) and a few others made her consume alcohol and gang raped her. I was in immense mental stress, so there was a delay in filing the complaint.”

The Opposition has questioned the hurry in cremating the body, as well as police failure to lodge an FIR till several days later.

On Thursday, the Calcutta High Court ordered the CBI to take over the probe, directing it to submit a report by May 2, the next date of hearing.