CPI-M using gang rape issue to foment unrest: Trinamool

The Trinamool Congress Sunday criticised the "inhuman" way in which the CPI-M was "trying to create unrest" in West Bengal by using the issue of the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in the state.

Trinamool all-India general secretary Mukul Roy accused the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) of "working together" to halt progress and development in the state.

"When such incidents happen, Trinamool looks at them in a humane way... we think awareness has to be generated in the society in the wake of such events... we don't see party, colour, religion or language," Roy told reporters here.

"The legal system runs its course... TMC doesn't interfere with the law, nor does the government," he said.

"But we are seeing the inhuman way in which the CPI-M is trying to create unrest in Bengal... by focusing on the gang rape incident."

The girl was gang-raped twice in October in Madhyamgram in North 24 Parganas district. She breathed her last Dec 31 at a government hospital where she was admitted with severe burn injuries Dec 23.

Police have slapped murder charges against two accused, now in custody, based on the girl's dying declaration that the duo had set her ablaze.

Roy said police took the necessary steps and the accused were arrested.

"We are with the bereaved family in a humanitarian manner," he said.

The Trinamool leader said atrocities were committed on women during the erstwhile Left Front regime, and no one has forgotten "the measures the erstwhile regime had taken to suppress the matters".

"We have seen in all elections how the Congress, BJP, CPI-M are working together to defeat Trinamool in Bengal, halt Bengal's progress and hinder the pace of growth," he said