Kolkata law student's gang-rape: BJP fact-finding team recommends probe by central agency

New Delhi: A BJP fact-finding team has recommended a probe by a central agency into the gang rape of a law student in Kolkata, claiming the state police's way of handling the case raises suspicion of attempts being made to save the culprits.

Alleging a deteriorating law-and-order situation in the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal, it has also recommended that a request be made to the Centre for some "effective measures" to control the situation in the state, said former Union minister and ex-Mumbai police chief Satya Pal Singh.

He made the remark at a press conference on Tuesday as part of the fact-finding team.

The four-member team comprising BJP MP and former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Rajya Sabha MP Manan Kumar Mishra, and former Union minister Meenakshi Lekhi, besides Satya Pal Singh, submitted its report to party president J P Nadda here on Tuesday.

Sharing with the media the findings of the BJP panel, Singh said there were questions on the registration of the case and its investigation by the Kolkata Police. He alleged that the handwritten complaint submitted by the victim had been tampered with to remove the names of the accused she had mentioned.

"Police erased the names of the accused that the victim had given in her handwritten complaint and put in letters J, G, S, M in place of those names. When the police have tampered with the complaint itself, which is the basic document in the case, how can one hope that the victim and her family will get justice?" He said the committee has recommended that either a probe by a central agency be initiated or a high-level independent inquiry by persons of repute be instituted to ensure justice to the victim and her family.

Mishra claimed the Kolkata Police Commissioner (Manoj Jha) was evasive in his reply when the enquiry committee asked him to clarify why names were erased and some letters were put in their place.

The Kolkata Police's actions, like "tampering with the FIR and swift arrest of four accused", raise a big suspicion, he said.

Singh said the BJP committee noted growing atrocities and crimes against women in West Bengal and police inaction in many such cases. "There is a total collapse of law and order in West Bengal," he said.

Slamming the ruling Trinamool Congress over the law student's gang-rape, Deb demanded that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee take responsibility for the incident. "She has no right to continue in her post," he said.