Kolkata women, students protest Barasat rape incident

Students and women organisations Thursday came out on the streets of Kolkata to protest the gang-rape and murder of a girl student at Barasat in the adjacent North 24 Parganas district.

Thirteen members of Maitree, a network of women's rights organisations and activists, were arrested for holding a demonstration near the South Kolkata's Hazra crossing, close to the residence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The women's activists held aloft placards demanding immediate action from Banerjee to ensure safety and security of women in the state.

Women activists of four Left students organisations took out a rally and held a sit-in demonstration at the city hub Esplanade close to the secretariat when they were stopped by police.

The demonstrators demanding exemplary punishment for the perpetrators of the crime and alleged that the state government was indifferent to atrocities being committed on women.

Later, they gave a memorandum on the issue to the chief secretary at the state secretariat.

The Congress students wing Chhattra Parishad also held a demonstration in the city on the same issue.

A second year college student was allegedly abducted, raped and killed by a group of youths June 7 when she was returning home after appearing in an examination in Barasat.Her body was found beside a fishpond.