Victim’s kin won’t attend trial till counsel changed

The brother of the 22-year-old college girl,who was raped and brutally murdered,confirmed that his family members will not attend the court hearing in Kolkata.

“We will meet Chief Minster (Mamata Banerjee) and the law minister and appeal to them to change the public prosecutor in the case as we are not satisfied with the present one. We will attend the hearings only after that,” he said,adding that the family should be allowed to put up their own lawyer.

“Minister Jyotipriya Mullick had promised us that he would arrange our meeting with the Chief Minister. We want it to happen as soon as possible,” he said.

Meanwhile,Pradeep Mukherjee,headmaster of the primary school in Kamduni and head of the advisory committee of Kamduni Pratibadi Mancha,said,“So far,only one van full of people from the village went for the hearings. Beginning Tuesday,we will double the numbers.”

Mukherjee,who had attracted a lot of flak from the government for being part of the protest rally organised at the village,said he has not been to the court yet but would do so Tuesday.

“Police had categorically told us they would not be able to ensure our safety on the way,so we have decided to take care of that ourselves,” he said.

Mausumi Kayal,secretary of the forum,too,said she has come too far in the fight to back out. “I had been to the court on all occasions and will continue to do so till justice is served. I have been tagged as a Maoist and a CPIM cadre (by the state government). It can’t get any worse for me. We will fight to the finish now,” Mausumi said.