Howrah:
Two women of the same family were gang- raped in West Bengal's Howrah district on Tuesday night in what appears to be a case of political revenge. The women belonged to a family that supported the CPM. The Trinamool Congress lost the panchayat polls in that village last year to CPM backed independents.
Asked about the connection between the Trinamool and the rape accused, Trinamool general secretary and MP Mukul Roy lost his temper.
"Rapists have no caste or colour," he said, adding, "However, I know you are from a specific news channel because you are holding its logo. Were the rapists carrying Trinamool membership cards?"
But had he visited Muktirchok village where the two women were raped, Mr Roy may have thought twice. For there, on wall after wall of the village huts were writings for the panchayat polls. And on many of them, one name was most prominent. The name of Barun Makhal, panchayat candidate for Trinamool.
Mr Makhal is one of the eight men accused with rape in the FIR. Seven have been arrested but he is absconding. Mr Makhal is also believed to have acted as the election agent for Trinamool MLA Nirmal Majhi in 2011. He also allegedly led the gang of 15 odd people who assaulted the two women.
"My husband had been drinking. Late at night some people from the Trinamool party came and dragged him out when they went to attack that house. He could not refuse because these days you have to do what the Trinamool says," 35-year-old Saraswati Makal said.
Kamini Makhal, mother of three sons and five daughters, who lives 500 metres away from the house of the rape survivors, recounted a similar tale. Her son was in the house on Tuesday night when he was called out by men, allegedly from the Trinamool.
"The next thing I know, he has been arrested," she said.
A BJP delegation visiting the village says the rapes were for political revenge.
"The CPM is claiming the victims belonged to a family of CPM supporters. Fact is, that family supported the BJP," said BJP's Samik Bhattacharya. "Because they had changed loyalties but not gone for Trinamool, the Trinamool decided to punish them by gang raping their women."
Leaders of the Left Front who visited the victims in hospital today were also appalled. "What has happened is barbaric," said Biman Bose, CPM Politburo member. "What has been done to the women is because of political vendetta by the Trinamool because they lost in that village in the panchayat polls.
In Muktirchowk, an uneasy calm and an uneasy question: what will political parties do next in their battle for turf.