In India’s West Bengal, a woman has reportedly committed suicide after being harassed and beaten up by members of the village panchayat (elected local governing body). News agency PTI citing police on Tuesday (July 2) reported that the woman from Jalpaiguri district was allegedly flogged in the Bogravita panchayat over a supposed extramarital relationship on June 29.>>>CONTINUE FULL READING HERE
The incident happened just a day after a similar public flogging incident in the neighbouring Uttar Dinajpur district, where a local Trinamool Congress (TMC) party functionary was accused of punishing a woman and a man for alleged extramarital relations.
Police, as per reports, have arrested four people, including two women, based on complaints from the deceased woman’s husband and brother over the flogging incident.
The deceased woman’s husband, as per an Indian Express report, said that his wife ingested a poisonous substance following the public humiliation and assault by other women from their village, which took place in front of the panchayat.
He stated, “My wife ended her life by drinking some poisonous substance after some women from the village beat her up in front of the panchayat. I complained to the police that my wife died because of these women, as she could not bear the humiliation of being summoned to the kangaroo court and being beaten up publicly.”
Reportedly, rumours of an extramarital affair had surfaced when the woman went missing 10 days prior to the incident. Her husband had also filed a missing person report at New Jalpaiguri police station.
She returned home last Saturday, after which the panchayat head, Malati Roy, and her husband, Shankar Roy, purportedly summoned her. Her husband claimed that upon their arrival at the panchayat, they were both assaulted by Roy’s supporters.
“Once she came back, my wife was summoned by the panchayat head and TMC leader Malati Roy and her husband Shankar Roy. When we went there, their supporters started assaulting me and my wife,” he said.
However, Malati and Shankar Roy have denied organising a kangaroo court. Instead, Shankar Roy contends, “They were to file a police complaint, but they instead came to the panchayat. This woman had earlier eloped with another youth. It was probably due to this that their neighbours called and beat her up. We were not even present there. I reached there when the meeting was going on and the woman said she was going to the washroom. After a while, we came to know that she drank acid.”
The incident has sparked political reactions, with BJP MLA Shikha Chatterjee criticizing the ruling TMC government and demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Slamming Banerjee, she said: “Most of the women are oppressed during her rule. The CM should resign immediately. It is a heinous crime to summon someone to a kangaroo court and beat them up.”
Earlier, TMC spokesperson Jayprakash Majumder had described such incidents as “social problems,” and said “They should not be politicised. All political parties should come forward to bring such incidents to an end.”
This event follows a similar controversy in Uttar Dinajpur, where a TMC functionary was filmed publicly flogging a woman and a man, prompting criticism from both the BJP and the CPM.
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.” — Albus Dumbledore>>>CONTINUE FULL READING HERE
