Gangrape case: Additional district judge visits crime spot

Suri/Kolkata , Jan 27: Acting on the directions of the Supreme Court, the additional district judge of Suri today visited the Birbhum gangrape victim in hospital and also the crime spot in Subolpur village.

The Supreme Court, which had taken suo motu cognisance of the shocking gangrape of the 20-year-old tribal girl on January 21, had directed the district judge, Suri to visit the spot and place a report with it within a week. Since district judge Subhra Ghosh was on leave, the additional judge Subhrodip Mitra visited the victim.

The girl was gangraped on the orders of a kangaroo court after she expressed her inability to pay a fine for being in love with a man from a different community. The additional district judge along with Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Chakraborty met the victim at the hospital for 45 to 50 minutes.

A five-member Special Investigative Team (SIT) set up to investigate the gangrape also visited the place where the crime took place. The SIT, which included the Investigating Officer in the case would report to the Superintendent of the Police in the district, IG (Western Range) Siddhinath Gupta said.

Gupta told PTI that the police recorded the eye-witness accounts of the victim's paramour Sheikh Khalek and his elder brother, Dipu Seth who had paid the fine for Khalek before freeing him from the clutches of the kangaroo court.

Gupta along with DIG (Burdwan Range) L N Meena and District Magistrate Jagdish Prasad Meena also visited the hospital where the girl was admitted. The 13 people accused of the gangrape have been remanded to police custody for 13 days since January 24.

PTI