Gang of 10 molests schoolgirl in Kolkata suburb, cops call it 'small incident'

July 29, 2012

eveteasing Barasat, July 29: An 18-year-old girl was surrounded by a group of 10 youths, abused and molested near Barasat station on Friday night in a chilling parallel with the stripping of a girl by a mob in Guwahati earlier this month. The rogues also slapped and shoved the girl's father, who had answered her SOS and rushed to her help, before being chased away by angry local residents, unlike in Guwahati where the hapless victim was at the mob's mercy for almost half an hour. Two of the Barasat molesters have been arrested.

But Saturday morning added insult to injury when Barasat's Trinamool Congress MLA and former Tollywood megastar Chiranjeet appeared to blame women for incidents of eve-teasing when he took a dig at women's "dress sense" and "their skirt sizes" that he felt were for "men's entertainment". He did condemn Friday's incident, but the remark on skirt sizes from a man who played crusader and women's saviour on the Tolly screen in bumper hits like 'Bostir Meye Radha', 'Pratikaar' and 'Maryada', drew howls of protest from across the city, including filmstars, who said such "irresponsible" comments weren't expected from an artist.

The place where the girl was attacked, near Platform No.1, wasn't far from the spot where Rajib Das, a schoolboy, was murdered on February 13 last year as he tried to shield his sister, a call centre employee, from drunk goons. It raised questions about the spate of crimes in the bustling town that serves as district headquarters of North 24-Parganas. Six months after Das's murder, the wife of a Kolkata Police Special Branch constable was attacked by three motorcycle-borne youths, who tried to snatch her chain. She escaped with a wound, but her mother-in-law had a heart attack and died. The area is close to the DM's office and the bungalows of the SP and additional SP and Barasat court.

Chiranjeet visited the girl at her home in Barasat's Banamalipur around 4.30 pm, but did not speak to the media after that.

His line of thought, though, found curious resonance in the reaction of North 24-Paragnas police superintendent Champak Bhattacharya, who described the events of Friday as a "small incident". "To my understanding, this is not an incident of eve-teasing. This is a small incident. Someone passed lewd comments and assaulted the girl's father. We have arrested the main culprits. Allegations of lack of policing are baseless. There are sufficient lights and people deployed. Such one-off incidents can't be indicative of deteriorating law and order," he said.

The "small incident" triggered considerable public outrage and an immediate backlash. Local residents nabbed one of the molesters, 28-year-old Ramesh Das, thrashed him and handed him over to the police. His interrogation led to the arrest of Subhankar Das (30) on Saturday morning. Both were produced in Barasat district court and sent to jail custody for 14 days.

The victim, a class XII student of Barasat's Priyanath Girls High School, and her friend were returning home from geography tuitions when they the group pounced on them. The girls were headed for the overbridge to cross over from Noapara to Banamalipur when the group, seated on a bench front of a tea stall, first taunted them and made lewd comments. The remarks were targeted specifically at the 18-year-old girl. She first ignored the taunts but protested as the barrage of abuses refused to stop. At that, two youths blocked her path and another tugged at her hand. The scared girl called her father — an employee with the Barasat zilla parishad. "I reached there within minutes. I protested and asked them to step out of the way. When they refused, I screamed angrily. They heckled me, slapped me and shoved me on the road," he said on Saturday. By then, locals had started gathering there. Sensing danger, the youths fled. "Had my father and the local residents not intervened, I shudder to think what would have happened. They beat up my father mercilessly," the girl said.

Chiranjeet's remarks came on the sidelines of a Science Fair inauguration at Barasat auditorium. Describing eve-teasing as an "ancient incident", he said, "The Ramayana would never be made if Ravan wasn't there. With only Ram... there would be no story. Eve-teasing is an ancient incident. It is not new... for its reasons, to some extent, even women are involved. Their skirt size, their dress sense that is definitely for entertainment. For whom? Men, obviously. But that is to be appreciated — to be praised. If someone passes lewd comments, it should be protested. Something like this happened here yesterday. "

State women's commission chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee remarked, "We are supposed to move forward and not backward. Are we in a stage where people hunt one another? I will not comment on the MLA's statement — everyone is supposed to have their own opinion — but the spurt of such incidents is worrisome."

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News Network
May 27,2020

New Delhi, May 27: Professor Johan Giesecke of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, on Wednesday claimed that India will ruin its economy very quickly if it had a severe lockdown.

Claiming that a strict lockdown may disrupt India's economic growth, Giesecke during an interaction with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said: "In India, you will do more harm than good with strict lockdown measures. India will ruin its economy very quickly if it had a severe lockdown."

While calling for a soft lockdown approach in India, he suggested that India has to ease restrictions one by one. It may, however, take months to completely come out of lockdown, he said.

He further criticised countries across the globe for having no post-lockdown strategy.

Emphasising on the disease, the Swedish health expert said that coronavirus is spreading like a wildfire across the world. "It is a very mild disease. Ninety-nine per cent infected people will have very less or no symptoms," he added.

Meanwhile, Ashish Jha, Director Harvard Global Health Institute and a recognised public health official, in interaction with Gandhi, called for a need to go in for an 'aggressive' COVID-19 testing to create confidence among people.

"When the economy is opened post-lockdown, you have to create confidence. There is a need for aggressive testing strategy in high-risk areas," he said.

He asserted that COVID-19 is not the last pandemic in the world, adding that "We are entering the age of large pandemics".

Jha further said that countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong have responded the best to COVID-19 pandemic, while Italy, Spain, the US and the UK have responded the worst.

A few days ago, the Gandhi scion had interacted with former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and Nobel Prize Winner Abhijit Banerjee to discuss various issues related to the COVID-19 crisis.

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News Network
February 11,2020

Aligarh, Feb 11: Paediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan, who was arrested from Mumbai on January 29 after he delivered a speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) against communalism and politics of hate, will be released from jail on Tuesday after he was granted bail by an Aligarh court.

Khan will be released from Mathura jail on Tuesday after legal formalities are completed.

Chief judicial magistrate Karuna Singh granted bail to Khan on Monday on a bail bond of Rs 60,000. Two surety bonds of Rs 60,000 each would also be furnished by the guarantors.

Dr Khan's lawyer, Mohammad Irfan Gazi, told reporters, "The court was told that Khan was falsely implicated by police under political pressure. After hearing the arguments, the court granted him bail."

The suspended doctor was arrested by special task force (STF) of the UP police from Mumbai on January 29, when he reached the city to attend a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

He was arrested in connection with a case registered against him in Aligarh under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) of the Indian Penal Code at Civil Lines police station on December 13

The case was filed after his speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

According to the FIR, while addressing students, without naming anyone, Dr Kafeel Khan said that 'Mota Bhai' is teaching everyone to become Hindu or Muslim but not a human being. "This is a fight for our existence. We have to fight."

The FIR also said that Dr Kafeel Khan made an attempt to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere and disturb the communal harmony with his speech.

Dr Khan was in the news in 2017 when he was named as one of the nine accused in a case involving deaths of several children due to alleged disruption in supply of oxygen at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur. Though he was granted clean chit in a departmental inquiry, his suspension has not yet been revoked.

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Agencies
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: Despite the fact that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) managed to clean sweep in the recently-concluded 2020 Delhi Assembly polls with eight women candidates winning, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's new cabinet does not have a single woman.

This, even as eight AAP women candidates -- Atishi Marlena, Rakhi Birla, Raj Kumari Dhillon, Preeti Tomar, Dhanwati Chandela, Parmila Tokas, Bhavna Gaur and Bandana Kumari emerged victorious in the 2020 Assembly polls.

Also, AAP's poll campaign had put the spotlight on women's issues- free bus rides for women, safety etc.

This year, AAP had fielded nine female candidates out of which only woman candidate Sarita Singh from Rohtas Nagar suffered defeat. In 2015, the party had fielded six women candidates, all of whom won the election.

Atishi Marlena, who won the election from Kalkaji, has served as a key advisor to the AAP leader Manish Sisodia primarily on education policies that transformed public school education in the capital.

Just like Marlena, incumbent MLA Rakhi Birla from Mangolpuri constituency has also failed to comeback to the Cabinet in this term even after bagging over 74,100 votes, with a margin of over 30,000 votes and 58 per cent of the vote share.

She was charged with the Cabinet Ministry of Women and Child, Social Welfare and Languages, for a few months in AAP's first term from 2013 to 2014. During this, period she came to the spotlight as she became the youngest ever cabinet minister of Delhi at the age of 26 and was even called "giant killer" for defeating four-time Congress MLA Raj Kumar Chouhan in 2013 Delhi polls.

Another candidate of AAP, Raj Kumari Dhillon swept Hari Nagar against BJP's Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga by a margin of over 20,100 votes.

Apart from these three, Preeti Tomar (Tri Nagar), Dhanwati Chandela (Rajouri Nagar), Pramila Tokas (RK Puram), Bhavna Gaur (Palam), and Bandana Kumari (Shalimar Bagh)- the other five who won for AAP- do not figure in the new cabinet.

Today at Ramlila Maidan, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Delhi.

Besides him, Manish Sisodia, Satyender Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain, and Rajendra Gautamas took oath as the ministers in Delhi.

AAP achieved a landslide victory in the Assembly elections with a clear majority of 62 seats out of 70. 

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