Chinsurah, April 18: The husband of a woman who was allegedly raped by a neighbour in Hooghly’s Chinsurah was found hanging today, days after police allegedly charged the accused with causing public nuisance and let him off hours after arrest.
After relatives and neighbours of the woman protested and stormed Chinsurah police station, accused Nantu Karmakar, 25, was arrested late tonight and charged with rape.
The woman alleged that Nantu and his family members had threatened her and her 22-year-old husband after the accused was released hours after his first arrest on Monday night.
The husband, a hawker, was found hanging, a muffler tied around his neck, in his home early today.
According to police records, Nantu was picked up from his home hours after the woman and her husband went to Chinsurah police station to lodge a complaint. Duty officer Sandip Kumar Roy, however, allegedly did not register the complaint and asked the woman to undergo a medical test the next morning.
“The record book shows Nantu, a private tutor, was (initially) booked for committing nuisance in public places, not rape. Section 290 of the IPC (committing nuisance in public) deals with petty offences and it does not entail imprisonment. The punishment under this section is a fine of only Rs 200,” an officer at Chinsurah police station said.
Rape accused are booked under Section 376, which carries a punishment of not less than seven years in jail.
As the news of the hawker’s death spread, a group of 200 residents accused the police of inaction and stormed the police station. They accused the police of taking a bribe to release Nantu.
Debasree Sanyal, the deputy superintendent of police, said a departmental inquiry had been started into possible lapses by the police. “If we find any policeman guilty, stern action will be taken against him,” she said.
Besides Nantu, his mother Minati and sister Mithu were also arrested today. The women have been charged with abetment to suicide.
The woman, who has a four-year-old daughter, said: “On the afternoon of April 12, Nantu entered my house and gagged me with a gamchha. He raped me and before leaving, threatened to kill my daughter if I told anybody. I had planned to commit suicide but could not, thinking about my little daughter.”
On April 15, the woman informed her husband. “We went to Chinsurah police station that day and told everything to Sandip Kumar Roy, the duty officer. I told him that I could not write,” the woman said. “The officer refused to take my complaint but assured me that Nantu would be arrested. He also gave me his cellphone number and asked me to undergo a medical test. We returned home in good faith,” the woman said.
Late on the night of April 15, the police arrested Nantu from his house. “My husband started receiving threats calls from Nantu the next morning. Nantu’s mother and sister also threatened us. We did not dare to go to the police again,” she said. “In the suicide note, my husband said he wanted exemplary punishment for Nantu,” the woman said.
Asked why the police neither registered a case when the woman went to the police station nor took her to a government hospital immediately for a medical test, inspector in charge of Chinsurah police station Nirmal Jash said: “We did not receive any written complaint from the victim on April 15.”
Jash refused comment when asked about the procedure of registering the complaint of an unlettered person.
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