Kolkata: The ugly spat between the members of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and representatives of the local administration and members of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR), which started at Tiljala in Kolkata on Friday, continued at Gazole in Malda district on Saturday.
The NCPCR team is on a field visit in West Bengal to inspect cases of minor abuse.
On March 18, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped inside her school premises by three local men. The NCPCR team led by the commission’s chairman Priyank Kanoongo reached Gazole on Saturday for the purpose of field inspection into the case.
Somewhere around the same time, a team of WBCPCR led by its chairperson Sudeshna Roy also reached the spot, and the two sides got engaged in a heated exchange of words.
Kanoongo alleged that the process of field inspection was disrupted by the WBCPCR team, which reportedly created hindrances for them to speak to the members of the victim’s family in private.
“The incident happened 10 days back, but the members of WBCPCR couldn’t take out time to meet the members of the victim’s family. Now when we are here, they have also arrived to disrupt the process of our investigation. We are supposed to get state protection since our visit was informed to the state administration from beforehand. But we are not getting that,” Kanoongo told mediapersons.
However, Sudeshna Roy refuted the allegations and claimed that her team went there to cooperate with the central team.
“Both the teams are supposed to work together. But it seems that the visiting team members are trying to hide something and hence they are objecting to our presence,” she said.
Irked by the ongoing spat, the victim’s mother minor told mediapersons that at a time when she is looking for justice for her daughter who is still in trauma, such ugly spats are just adding to her pains.
“The unfortunate incident that happened with my daughter has started taking political colours now. This is something we cannot afford to take at this point of crisis,” she said.
On Friday evening, Kanungo had alleged that when he went to the Tiljala police station in Kolkata in connection with the ‘human sacrifice’ of a seven-year-old girl by her neighbour, he was harassed and assaulted by the officer-in-charge of the police station, Biswak Mukherjee.
He also alleged that when he along with NCPCR secretary Rupali Bandopadhyay reached the residence of the victim, Roy stopped them from having a free interaction with the family members.
–IANS
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