Kolkata doctor's rape-murder case: BJP demands Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's resignation

BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed that no woman in the state will feel safe if she (Mamata Banerjee) continues as chief minister.

New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of siding with the accused instead of the victim in the case of rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, and demanded her resignation.

BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia claimed that no woman in the state will feel safe if she continues as chief minister.

"You (Banerjee) did not perform your moral duty. You should immediately resign," he told reporters, alleging that she tried to save the accused of the crime, which has shocked the nation.

Bhatia cited the critical comments of the Calcutta High Court about the handling of the case before it transferred the investigation to the CBI, as he addressed the CM as "nirmamta" (pitiless) Banerjee.

He expressed confidence that the CBI will ensure a thorough probe and that the guilty are hanged.

He said the local police first informed the victim's parents that their daughter was sick and then claimed that she had committed suicide. The parents were made to wait for three hours before they could see her body, he said, alleging that attempts were made to destroy evidence and shield the accused.

Before doing a thorough probe, the police rejected the possibility of a gangrape, he said.

The state government instead of acting against the principal of the medical college, where the victim worked and the incident happened, transferred him in the same position to another college, he said.

The police did not initially lodge an FIR and termed the case as that of an unnatural death, Bhatia said, hitting out at Banerjee for allegedly shielding the accused and trying to brush the crime under the carpet.

Amid outrage, Banerjee said she will transfer the case to the CBI if it was not solved in a few days, he noted, suggesting that it was a deliberate attempt on her part to destroy evidence as first 48 hours are very important in such cases.

Law and order has collapsed in the state, he said, while also referring to the Sandeshkhali case in which a local Trinamool Congress strongman was the main accused.

The chief minister tried to protect the accused in this case as well, and he was acted against only after the court handed over the probe to the CBI, he said.

In the doctor's rape and murder case, the victim's family has expressed its lack of confidence in the local police, he said.

Bhatia also slammed I.N.D.I.A. bloc, of which the TMC is a part, saying they are "political cultures" who have chosen to maintain silence over the case for political reasons.

He accused the opposition parties of pandering to minorities votes, especially Muslims, by keeping selective silence over the targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh.

He said only after the BJP raised the issue, the Congress at a "belated stage" made comments on the matter as well but tried to create a "artificial equivalence" that Hindus also indulge in such acts.