The girl's body was taken to the CPM trade union's office this morning
The father of a 16-year-old gang-rape victim who died in Kolkata yesterday has now alleged that his daughter didn't commit suicide but was set on fire by the same men who gang-raped her in October. The girl's death has led to protests in the city since yesterday.
Her body was handed to her family by the Kolkata police after a three-hour tussle at the Neemtala Ghat crematorium this morning.
Here are the 10 big developments in this story
The girl was allegedly gang-raped twice by the same set of men in October. Her family had earlier said that she set herself afire on December 23 after two months of incessant harassment by friends of six men arrested for allegedly raping her. They wanted the charges withdrawn. The girl died at a hospital yesterday.
Her father, a taxi driver and member of CITU, has alleged that last evening, when the family was taking her body to a mortuary, cops intercepted the hearse and hijacked it to the crematorium in an attempt to cremate her. They couldn't do so because they did not have a death certificate, the family alleged.
The police, the family said, brought the body back to their home after five hours last night, at about 2.30 am.
This morning, the father left home at 6 with the body for the crematorium. He was accompanied by the police, which barricaded the crematorium amid chaos to prevent CITU leaders from taking the girl's body.
They finally allowed the family and CITU to take the body to the union's office. After being kept there for over three hours, the body was taken to the crematorium for last rites which were performed around 5 pm. A protest procession was held separately.
The police have denied that they took the girl's body to the crematorium last night without the family's consent. "The police was not in a hurry to cremate the body. The local police got in touch with the family. On the basis of the family's wish, the body was brought to the cremation ghat," Joint Commissioner Kolkata Police Rajiv Mishra said.
The distraught parents have demanded the death sentence for the rapists and for those who tormented the teen so much that she killed herself. Apart from the six men accused, two men have arrested on charges of harassing the girl. The parents said today, "We want the accused to be hanged till death."
The National Commission for Women's Mamata Sharma said she will write to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to seek an explanation "within 48 hours on what action the state government is taking to prevent such cases....The girl must have been very traumatised. If she had been given proper counselling, she would perhaps have not committed suicide."
The girl's father met Governor MK Narayanan today to lodge a complaint against the police. He has also filed a complaint of medical negligence against the superintendent of the hospital where the girl died of burn injuries.
Mukul Roy, senior leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress, said, "The accused are in the jail, and a chargesheet has been filed against them. The situation is very unfortunate and is not at all expected but it should be carefully seen what the government is doing regarding this."
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