BJP, TMC spar over CM Mamata Banerjee's remarks on Bengal gang-rape

Kolkata: The authorities of the colleges should not allow women staying in the hostels to go out at night, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday, even as police arrested three men for allegedly gangraping a medical student in Durgapur in the Paschim Bardhaman district of the state.

Her comment triggered a new war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which had been targeting her government, citing the incident as the latest example of the lack of safety of women and the lawlessness in West Bengal.

“The students from various states are coming here to study. I would request all to avoid going out at night. Police cannot know who is going out and when. The authorities of the private medical colleges have the responsibility to take care of the students,” Mamata told journalists at the airport before leaving Kolkata for her second visit to disaster-hit North Bengal.

“Everyone has a right to go anywhere. There is, however, a system in place for whoever stays in a hostel,” she said, adding that her government had a policy of zero tolerance on all crimes against women and that police would take stringent actions against the culprits responsible for gangraping the student, who hailed from Odisha but came to study in the medical college in Durgapur in West Bengal.

The student at the private medical college had gone off the campus at around 7:58 pm on Friday. She was accompanied by a male friend, who came back along at 8:42 pm but, after waiting at the gate for 5-6 minutes, went out, but again came back with her at 9:29 pm, according to the police who scanned the CCTV footage obtained from the college authorities. The woman later alleged that she had been sexually assaulted, and her phone had been snatched by the culprits.

The police arrested three suspects late on Saturday and early Sunday. The male friend of the victim was also detained for questioning. The victim has been admitted to a hospital.

The BJP strongly protested the statement of the chief minister and the TMC supremo that the students should not venture out at night.

“Her (chief minister’s) comment that women should not go out after evening was not only insensitive but also insulting. She has failed to ensure the safety of the women of the state, and now she has resorted to victim-blaming to cover up her government’s failure,” the BJP state unit chief Samik Bhattacharya said. The saffron party staged a protest demonstration in Kolkata on Sunday.

Mamata, herself, led the TMC to turn the tables on the BJP, pointing out that the culprits responsible for such heinous crimes against women often go unpunished in the states ruled by the BJP.

The incident took place more than a year after the protest against the rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor at a hospital in Kolkata on August 9, 2024, swept the state.