West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee comes out of the hospital after meeting the nun who was raped last week (Press Trust of India)
The outrage over the 72-year-old nun's rape in West Bengal's Ranaghat is continuing, even after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered a CBI probe into the incident that took place last week.
The Opposition has termed Ms Banerjee's move as an eyewash. "She has been forced to take this decision. But it is an eyewash, a camouflage," said Congress leader Abdul Mannan. The BJP's Tathagata Roy said that Ms Banerjee had been abusing the CBI so far, especially after the agency was ordered by the Supreme Court to probe the Saradha chit fund scam.
The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), a Left party, called a 12-hour bandh at Ranaghat today, but with partial success.
What's really being lambasted is the police's failure to arrest any person. A woman from a village near Ranaghat complained that on Tuesday, the police suddenly picked up her husband in the middle of the night. He is one of the dozen detained.
"The police grabbed my sleeping husband, pulled him out of bed and the house. He was just wearing shorts and was barefoot. When I asked why he was being taken away, the police said I should go to the thana and find out the next day. I ran after the police along with my father-in-law. The police then grabbed hold of my father-in-law as well and took him away," said Shilpa Das, waiting to meet her husband at the Ranaghat police station.
Ms Banerjee visited Ranaghat on Tuesday to meet the elderly nun but her convoy was blocked for almost an hour by angry crowds, demanding justice for the nun. A case was registered today under rioting, unlawful assembly and other sections of the Indian Penal Code for obstructing the Chief Minister's convoy.
Ms Banerjee said she ordered a CBI probe because Ranaghat is just 35 km from the porous Bangladesh border and suggested that the culprits may have crossed over. But her political opponents say the damage has already been done. "I believe the damage has already been caused. Damage is caused because 5-6 days have passed. This is a total failure of the police, both the CID and the district police," said CPM's Sujan Chakraborty.
Meanwhile, the nun, who underwent a surgery, is recovering well in hospital and is expected to be discharged soon.