A file image is used for representational purpose only.
The Bidhannagar City Police have arrested a 22-year-old e-rickshaw driver in connection with the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in the Newtown area on the northeastern fringes of Kolkata.
The body of the victim was found on Friday (February 7, 2025) in a desolate place in the New Town area in a plot owned by the West Bengal Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation and since then the police were trying to crack the crime. CCTV footage retrieved from the areas adjoining the scene of crime showed the girl walking alone and was also spotted taking the e-rickshaw (toto) of the accused on February 6 night.
According to the police, the toto driver, after dropping other passengers, took the girl to the desolate spot and sexually assaulted her and strangulated her to death. On interrogating the driver, his complicity in the crime was revealed and he was arrested.
“We have collected technical and biological evidence and after the input of doctors, we have added sections of sexual assault,” a senior official of the Bidhannagar Police said. The accused has been booked under provisions of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012) Act and was produced before the court in Barasat and remanded in police custody. The parents of the deceased demanded capital punishment for the accused and expressed apprehension that more people could be associated with the crime.
In a similar incident, the police in Jalpaiguri arrested an e-rickshaw driver on charges of raping a minor. The e-rickshaw driver used to ferry the victim regularly but on January 21, the driver forcibly fed the minor a drug-laced chocolate midway through the journey. The girl narrated her plight to the family members days after the crime after which a police complaint was lodged and the e-rickshaw driver was arrested.
Silent rally
Meanwhile, a silent rally was brought out in Kolkata on Sunday (February 9, 2025) to mark the birthday of the victim of R.G. Kar Hospital rape-murder in which doctors and people from all walks of life took part.
The rally, which started at College Square near the Calcutta University campus, culminated near R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in north Kolkata, covering a distance of nearly five kilometres. The rally comes six months after the body of the victim was found at the State-run facility on August 9, 2024.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front on Sunday (February 9, 2025) organised ‘Abhaya Clinic’, a health camp, at Sodepur in North 24 Parganas district, to mark the birthday of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital victim.
On January 20, a trial court in Sealdah awarded life imprisonment to the convict in R.G. Kar rape and murder case. The Calcutta High Court has admitted a petition of the CBI seeking death penalty for the convict Sanjay Roy, a former civic police volunteer.
Published – February 09, 2025 09:55 pm IST