The girl’s death sparked protests across the city.
The family of a 16-year-old from West Bengal who was gang-raped twice in October and died after being set on fire allegedly by men known to the rapists, will meet President Pranab Mukherjee today to ask for a CBI investigation.
The teenager, who died of serious burns at a hospital in Kolkata on December 31, was gang-raped in the town of Madhyamgram, a 90-minute drive from Kolkata, on two consecutive days in October allegedly by the same group of six men. All six have been arrested.
In a statement to investigating officers before she died, she had said that two men had poured kerosene and set her afire on December 23. The men were arrested the next day, but the police disclosed her statement only on January 2.
The admission by the police placed Mamata Banerjee's government in a new controversy, not only because of the teen's horrific ordeal, but because of an ugly attempt by the police to force a cremation for her sooner than her family wanted - an attempt, the opposition Left says, to bury the truth that the girl, twice sexually assaulted, was given no security, which led to her murder.
The girl's father, a taxi driver originally from Bihar, is a loyalist of the Left's trade union, CITU, which wanted to organise a public funeral procession.
In a grotesque attempt to stymie that, police tried to hijack the body and organize a hasty cremation. The girl's father however avoided that by refusing to hand over her death certificate.
She was finally cremated on January 1.
The girl's father has alleged that a forensic team is yet to visit the house where his daughter was set on fire. "What are they investigating? The incident happened on December 23, but the forensic team is yet to visit the house and collect samples," he told reporters last week and added that he feared for the safety of his family.