1990 Bantala rape case

Last updated

1990 Bantala rape case
Date30 May 1990
Time6:30 pm IST (UTC+05:30)
LocationBantala, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India
Deaths2 (1 female victim, 1 male victim)
Non-fatal injuries2 (female victims)

On 30 May 1990, three health officers, two from the Health Department of the Government of West Bengal and one from UNICEF, were raped by a group of alleged CPI (M) supporters, in Bantala Road, when they were returning from Rangabelia village in Gosaba. One of the officers and their driver died while resisting the attackers.

Contents

Incident

On 30 May 1990, a team of three health officers were returning to Kolkata after inspecting an immunization program in Gosaba. [1] [2] The team consisted of Anita Dewan, the Deputy District Extension Media Officer of the West Bengal Health Department; Uma Ghosh, a senior officer of the Health Department; and Renu Ghosh, a representative of UNICEF's World Health Organization office in New Delhi. Around 6:30 pm, when they reached Bantala near the Eastern metropolitan bypass, a group of 4-5 youths stopped their car near the local club. [3] [4] The driver Abani Naia made an attempt to swerve and escape, but he lost control and the car overturned. Another gang of 10-12 youths arrived at the spot, who pulled one of the women out of the car, while the others pulled out the other two women. The driver of the car tried to resist the youths, but failed. The attackers crushed the driver's genitalia and set the car on fire. [5] The lady officers were then taken to a nearby paddy field and raped. One woman who tried to resist the rapists was killed. [6]

The police brought the naked bodies of the officers to the emergency department of Calcutta National Medical College at around 11:30 pm. Initially they were presumed dead, but later two of them were found to be alive and were admitted for treatment. One lady doctor who examined the dead woman, Anita Dewan, fainted when she discovered a metallic torch had been inserted inside the vagina of the officer. [7]

The injured driver was transferred to SSKM Hospital for treatment. He bore 43 wounds in his body caused by blunt, sharp and heavy weapons. [8] His penis was smashed by the attackers. On 4 June 1990 at 5:40 am, he died. [9]

Investigation

Prasanta Sur, the then Health Minister of West Bengal, defended the mob by contending that the victims might have been mistaken as child-abductors. The chief minister Jyoti Basu also attempted to trivialized the incident. But there is controversy regarding actual cause of the incident. [9] [10] [11] It has been speculated that Dewan was the main target because she had been collecting evidence about funds allocated by the UNICEF for rural development in the state being misused & misappropriated by the local panchayat members affiliated with the ruling CPI(M) for their own enrichment. [7] After investigations by the government, the six accused in the case were sentenced to life-imprisonment. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kolkata</span> Capital of West Bengal, India

Kolkata is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, 80 km (50 mi) west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary financial and commercial centre of eastern and northeastern India. Kolkata is the seventh most populous city of India with an estimated city proper population of 4.5 million (0.45 crore). It is the centre of the Kolkata Metropolitan Region, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world with a population of over 15 million residents. Kolkata is the de facto cultural capital of India and historically and culturally significant city in the historic region of Bengal. It is the second largest Bengali-speaking city in the world. It has the highest number of Nobel laureates among all cities in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jyoti Basu</span> Indian Communist politician (1914-2010)

Jyoti Basu was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the member of Politburo of the party since its formation in 1964 till 2008. He was also the member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly 11 times. In his political career, spanning over seven decades, he was noted to have been the India's longest serving chief minister in an elected democracy, at the time of his resignation. He was proposed for the post of Prime Minister of India for four times.

Bengali Brahmos are those who adhere to Brahmoism, the philosophy of Brahmo Samaj which was founded by Raja Rammohan Roy. A recent publication describes the disproportionate influence of Brahmos on India's development post-19th Century as unparalleled in recent times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamata Banerjee</span> Chief Minister of West Bengal, India since 2011

Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served multiple times as a Union Cabinet Minister, Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the first time in 2011. She founded the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its second chairperson later in 2001. She is often referred to as Didi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kolkata Police</span> Indian territorial police force

The Kolkata Police is the police department of the city of Kolkata, West Bengal. It is one of the six presidency police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area of Kolkata, India. The force's motto is "Bhavatā Saha – Sarvadā". Established in 1856, it is the oldest police commissionerate in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nandigram violence</span> 2007 land acquisition protests in West Bengal, India

Nandigram Violence refers to the violence in Nandigram, West Bengal, India, in 2007 due to the land acquisition for a project taken up by the CPI(M)-led Government of West Bengal to create a chemical hub, a type of special economic zone (SEZ). The policy led to an emergency in the region, and 14 people died in a police shooting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ajoy Mukherjee</span> Indian politician (1901–1986)

Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee was an Indian independence activist and politician who served three short terms as the Chief Minister of West Bengal. He hailed from Tamluk, Purba Medinipur district, West Bengal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gosaba</span> Village in West Bengal, India

Gosaba is a village and a gram panchayat within the jurisdiction of the Gosaba police station in the Gosaba CD block in the Canning subdivision of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Prostitution in Kolkata is present in different forms and Kolkata's sex industry is one of the largest in Asia. Prostitution may be brothel-based or non-brothel based as in the case of call girls. India is regarded as having one of the largest commercial sex trades globally. Kolkata has many red-light districts, out of which Sonagachi is the largest red-light district in Asia with more than 50,000 commercial sex workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawkers in Kolkata</span> Streeet vendors in Kolkata, India

Hawkers in Kolkata numbering 275,000 generated business worth ₹ 87.72 billion in 2005. In Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal, almost 80 per cent of the pavements are encroached by hawkers and illegal settlers. In many countries, hawkers use pavements or other public places to retail their goods or services but in Kolkata the magnitude has drawn special attention of administrators and law courts.

The Tata Nano Singur controversy was a controversy generated by land acquisition of a proposed Tata Motors automobile factory at Singur in Hooghly district, West Bengal, India. The factory would have been used to build the compact car Tata Nano.

Khardaha Assembly constituency is an assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aryan FC</span> Indian multi-sports club based in Kolkata

Aryan Football Club is an Indian professional multi-sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal, known predominantly for its association football section. The club competes in the Calcutta Football League, oldest league in Asia.

On 7 June 2013, a 20-year-old college student was abducted, gang-raped and murdered in Kamduni village, 16km from Barasat, North 24 Parganas district about 20km from main Kolkata. In January 2016 the accused were sentenced to death and life imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Football in Kolkata</span> Overview of football in Kolkata

Football is one of the most popular sports in Kolkata, West Bengal. East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan are the heart of Kolkata football. The rivalry between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, originating from the Calcutta Football League as the Kolkata derby, is one of the fiercest in the world and considered among the flagship events in the Indian footballing calendar. Kolkata is known to be the Mecca of Indian football, with the two most supported teams in the country being based within the city – Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The city is also home to the biggest football stadium in India, the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, which as of 2015 has a capacity of 85,000. The record attendance of 131,781 came in a match between the said two teams in the semifinal of the 1997 Federation Cup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election</span> Indian state election

The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election was the 17th quinquennial legislative election held in West Bengal, to elect all 294 members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly. This electoral process of 292 seats unfolded between 27 March to 29 April 2021, taking place in eight phases. Voting for the two remaining constituencies was delayed to 30 September 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dipsita Dhar</span> Indian student activist (born 1993)

Dipsita Dhar is an Indian politician and student activist. She is the All India Joint Secretary of Students' Federation of India. She was the CPI(M) candidate from Bally constituency for 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election.

The Revolutionary Communist Council of India was an armed political faction in India founded in 1962 by Ananta Singh which followed Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The party was also called as Man Money Gun (MMG) Group. In May 1970 state authorities claimed to have arrested some 60 militants of the group in the Jaduguda forest, alleging that the group had attacked a police station in the Ruam region near Jamshedpur. The Indian press noted that among the arrested was a 26-year old British woman, Mary Tyler. The case became known as the Jaguguda Naxalite Conspiracy Case.

The 2007-2008 Nandigram violence was one of the major incidents which saw an alleged involvement of Maoists or more precisely the cadres, armed activists and guerrillas of Communist Party of India (Maoist). Trouble started after the Government of West Bengal led by Left front tried to acquire the agricultural land in Nandigram to allow Indonesia's Salem group to set up a hub for chemical industries. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the then chief minister of West Bengal, accused the Maoists for the violence during the Nandigram. Afterwards, they made a report that was submitted to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Afterwards in 2014, CPI (Maoists) confirmed that they were active during the Nandigram protests and termed it as "revolutionary people’s agitation".

On 5 January 2024, a team of Enforcement Directorate officers visited the village of Sandeshkhali in West Bengal, India, to interrogate a local Trinamool Congress leader, Sheikh Shahjahan, about his involvement with the corruption scandal of the politician Jyotipriya Mallick. Mallick, a former minister with the Trinamool Congress, pled guilty for embezzling multiple crores from food rationing funds in October 2023, implicating Shahjahan. In January 2024, the ED investigated additional allegations of sexual assault and improper land acquisition against Shahjahan. In the resulting altercation, three ED officers were injured by local supporters of Shahjahan.

References

  1. ↑ "Woman Official lynched in Calcutta". The Statesman. Kolkata. 1 June 1990.
  2. ↑ Sarkar, Tanika (1991). "Reflections on Birati Rape Cases: Gender Ideology in Bengal". Economic and Political Weekly. 26 (5): 215–218. JSTOR   4397275.
  3. ↑ Malllick, Shyamadas (9 April 2018). The Whistle and The Hummingbirds. Notion Press. pp. Section 2. ISBN   9781946515810.
  4. ↑ Ray, Raka (2000). Fields of Protest: Women's Movements in India. Zubaan. p. 99. ISBN   9788186706237.
  5. ↑ Bandyopadhyay, D (9 October 2010). "Musings of a Pensionjivi on Sumanta Banerjee's Letter". Mainstream Weekly. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  6. ↑ Banerjee, Sumanta (18 August 1990). "West Bengal Today: An Anticipatory Post-Mortem". JSTOR. JSTOR   4396636 . Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  7. 1 2 "Why we must never forget the atrocities, brutal murders and gangrapes in CPM-era Bengal". Firstpost. 15 June 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  8. ↑ Sengupta, Sukhoranjan (22 June 1990). "none". Anandabazar Patrika (in Bengali). Kolkata.
  9. 1 2 Four decades of blood bath in Bengal (2011). Hingsar Utsab (in Bengali). Kolkata: Dip Prakashan. p. 93.
  10. ↑ "City of Joy to city of rapes: Kolkata sees string of crimes against women" . Retrieved 27 June 2017.
  11. ↑ "Women, Rape and the Left". Economic and Political Weekly. 26 (5). 5 June 2015.
  12. ↑ "CM vows justice for rape victims". The Times of India. 14 March 2003. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.