MLA barges into House with rape victim, guards take rap

The Congress member has gone unscathed so far. Instead, the heads of four policemen have rolled. They have been placed under suspension pending an inquiry ordered by Speaker of the state Assembly Jiten Sarkar. They were charged with failing in their duty to prevent the member from entering the House with the girl.

Talking to The Indian Express over phone from Agartala, the Speaker admitted today :“It was a heinous offence to bring a minor, that too, a rape victim inside the house.” Narrating the incident, the Speaker said having entered the House, Ratan Lal Nath walked down to the well of the House holding the rape victim in his arms and then put her on the table for display to the members.

“It immediately sparked off chaos in the House with the treasury and the Opposition members charging towards each other,” said Sarkar. For seven minutes, the girl was made to sit on the table. The Speaker said he watched with horror such “a reprehensible and unprecedented act being committed in the House, lowering its dignity and prestige.”

But he didn’t want to precipitate the issue by taking action against the member, said the Speaker, because it seemed to him that the little girl might get harmed if any step was initiated at that point of time. “But I expected the treasury bench to bring a privilege motion against the MLA when things subsided,” he said. “Unfortunately, no such motion was brought but members — both from the treasury bench and the opposition — have condemned the Ratan Lal Nath’s behaviour, the Speaker said.

A senior official of the state police said the rapist, the owner of a small bakery in Mohanpur, about 20 km from Agartala town, is suspected to have fled to Bangladesh. Mohanpur falls in one of the prime smuggling routes and trans-border traffic is quite easy and regular, said the official.

The police denied the MLA’s charges that the Sidai police, under whose jurisdiction the crime was committed, refused to accept a FIR. The girl, found profusely bleeding after the crime, was first taken to Mohanpur primary health centre and subsequently to Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital where she was treated. The medical examination has confirmed she was raped, the police said.

Inquiries revealed that Tripura is one of the states which still does not have a Human Rights Commission. While the assembly Speaker, Jiten Sarkar said he was not aware of any such body, CPI (M) spokesman Gautam Das said the state could not afford to set up the Commission because of fund crunch. A post of IGP ( Human Rights) has been created who looks after violations of human rights cases, Das added.

In the absence of an independent HRC and with the state assembly not initiating any concrete step against the MLA, there is little hope that such gross violation of the code of conduct by a member would result in any exemplary punishment.