Bengal: Victim who was gang-raped by TMC goons on the day of Mamata’s election victory speaks to OpIndia

On the 2nd of May, at the same time as outcomes have been trickling in, it grew to become reasonably evident by late afternoon that Mamata Banerjee was coming again to energy with a thumping majority. By early night, a reign of terror was unleashed on those that had both labored for BJP in the course of the state elections or, had voted for the social gathering. 
As TMC criminals gheraoed the BJP headquarters in Hastings, began lynching employees like Avijit Sarkar, began stone pelting and burning workplaces all the way down to ashes, in a distant village in Burdwan, Ritu (title modified) and her father desperately looked for the cash they’d at hand and began gathering it on a desk. They had heard the sounds from others of their village, the information had travelled quick – TMC goons have been unleashing hell. Both her father and Ritu had labored for BJP within the run-up to elections and so they knew the goons would come knocking on their door ultimately, given what they have been doing in the remainder of the village.
Several homes of their locality have been being brutally attacked by those that purportedly labored for TMC. In this specific village, it was a gang of Muslim males burning down homes, harassing Hindus and attacking the boys who labored for BJP within the run-up to elections. News of some ladies being gang-raped by TMC males had additionally unfold like wildfire. Talking to OpIndia, Ritu says that whereas the village burnt and ladies bought gang-raped, there was no police in sight. She says that the police, in reality, refused to reply the telephone when requires assist have been being made.
At about 6-7 PM on 2nd May, simply as they have been gathering cash and on the point of go away and it was calmly raining exterior, TMC males got here knocking. Ritu says that a number of TMC goons, each Hindus and Muslims, got here knocking on the door. About 12 goons, she stated, have been standing exterior the home on the periphery guarding and a few goons, 8 or 9 of them, led by one Mamun Sheikh, got here inside her home.
The second they got here inside the home, they requested Ritu’s father the place she was. “Teri beti kaha hai”, Ritu says they stated. At that point, the TMC goons and Ritu’s father began getting right into a scuffle. They have been pushing her father round and always requested “where is your daughter?”. The father saved pushing them away and saying that his daughter was not at residence. Ritu, at the moment, was hiding within the kitchen.
While her father tried desperately to ward the goons off, they caught a glimpse of Ritu, hiding, attempting to avoid wasting herself. Her father informed the goons to go away his daughter alone and do no matter they need with him as an alternative. This, whereas a number of the goons had already dragged her out and have been holding her, refusing to let her go. As her father begged, the goons stated, “No. We want only Hindu girls, and we want your daughter”.
“They took out their gun and started beating papa mercilessly”, Ritu informed OpIndia. “I tried to save papa but I could not do it. They kept beating him. They were holding me and like dogs trying to harass me. Can you understand what was happening? I could not understand if I should save myself or papa.. should I manage how they were beating me up or save papa”, she added.
The goons who have been in the home immediately hit Ritu’s father on his head and made him sit in a single nook, with a gun pushed to the temple of his head. “Even when they made him sit in the corner after hitting him on his head, they did not just leave him alone. They kept kicking and beating him”, Ritu says.
The fundamental offender, Mamun Sheikh and his accomplices dragged Ritu in entrance of his father, tore her garments and proceeded to mercilessly gang-rape her. Her father, she says, saved pleading with Mamum and his accomplices, begging to go away his daughter, saying that he would do something they need him to do. They refused to pay attention and continued to brutalise Ritu.
She bought to know that one other TMC goons was referred to as Hasan when Mamun and others referred to as out to him, “We are finished, why don’t you come now”. Ritu says he didn’t do something to her. But he was referred to as out after they have been completed brutalising her so he may brutalise her too.
“It was the Muslims who gang-raped me”, Ritu stated.
“After they were done gang-raping me and beating my father, he somehow managed to pry me away from them and dragged me to the backdoor of our house”, she stated. Her father one way or the other mustered the braveness as a result of he was listening to the assailants speaking about killing Ritu – so she wouldn’t “open her mouth” about what occurred.
Her father didn’t hassle what stones, damaged glass and so on have been laying on the highway. He dragged her out one way or the other simply to get away from the barbarians. With no garments on her physique, her father took his pagdi off and coated her with it. Through a Christian cemetery, Ritu and her father saved working. While they have been attempting to get away, she may hear Mamun’s voice within the distance, mocking her. “How far will you run. You will have to come back here to me someday. Where did she go”. They have been probably not trying to find her critically, she says. They have been simply taunting her. She says they may not work out which forest they bumped into.

Ritu was taken to her father’s buddy’s home. When requested if she ever went to the police and even the hospital after she was gang-raped, she stated that they thought there was merely no level going to the police or the hospital as a result of regardless of the place they went, TMC goons would discover them. “Going to the police is like handing yourself over to the TMC goons”, she stated. Her father’s buddy prescribed some tablet to her, that she took for days.
Since the 2nd of May, Ritu stated that they’ve been working round, attempting to be protected. They hardly come again to their very own residence and after they do, they don’t exit even to the terrace. After she was gang-raped, Ritu had spent a very long time in her buddy’s home – buddies who had additionally discouraged her to go to the police.
Talking concerning the worry she faces, Ritu says that it has come to a degree the place she can’t even go away her home with out donning a Burqa. “I wear the Muslim attire.. the Burqa when I go out. Even my friends borrow it when they need to go out”. She says she does this so she will keep protected. If she goes out as a Hindu, she is hounded in her space by the Muslims.

She says that the TMC males, the Muslim employees who raped her, have executed the identical with a number of ladies from the locality. But none of them are keen to come back ahead and speak about it. When Ritu filed a criticism with the NHRC, she was discouraged by many, however says that she reasonably die earlier than taking her criticism again. While she tried to persuade the opposite ladies to come back ahead and speak about it, they refused, asking her to go away them alone and in peace.
Police harassment, stress to take the criticism again and unbridled worry
There have been a number of instances that the police has tried to harass Ritu and her father, she says, to provide a special model of the occasions and to get it on report. Just a few days after 2nd May (Ritu couldn’t affirm the date), Ritu was dwelling at her buddy’s home. Her father, who can also be principally not at residence after the incident, was there of their Burdwan home that day. Ritu says that the police got here and requested the neighbours in the event that they have been at residence. When the neighbours lied for her father and stated they weren’t, they tried to push the door in. Failing, they’d left.
She says she is assured that the police won’t take any motion towards the culprits, in reality, if they’ll, they’ll most likely put her, the sufferer, in jail beneath false costs. She says that the West Bengal police won’t ever stand for Hindus and even assist them. They will solely assist TMC and their supporters.

On one other event about a number of days in the past (Ritu can’t affirm the date however she says it was about 6-7 days earlier than this interview was taken on Saturday, 24 July), she was alone at her Burdwan home when some TMC goons had accompanied the police to her home. These weren’t the identical goons who had gang-raped her, however another TMC goons. She had nonetheless managed to maintain herself hidden.

This was not all. When Ritu and some different ladies have been assembly with the NHRC officers and submitting their criticism, Ritu had bought a surprising name to scare her into not complaining.
She says that she bought a name from an unknown quantity, asking her whether or not she had gone to file a criticism with the NHRC about what occurred to her. When she confirmed that she had, they requested how dare she filed a criticism with the NHRC. Further, they informed her that the Muslim males had filmed her getting gang-raped and uploaded the video on YouTube.
She says she was scared after what she was informed. Another BJP employee took the telephone and spoke to the individual threatening her on the telephone. He informed him that he ought to ship the video hyperlink to him so he can examine. The BJP employee although, noticed what was despatched, however by no means confirmed it to Ritu. They pacified her on the time, so she wouldn’t get labored up.

The native BJP employees and Ritu herself know who this man was, who had referred to as up and threatened her. She says that he’s an area man who rents automobiles to political events throughout elections. Even BJP had rented automobiles from him, however he was not part of the social gathering. While everybody recognised who he was, no person appeared to recall his title. The quantity from which she bought the risk has been submitted to NHRC in her criticism.
She additional stated that on one other night time at 2 AM, she bought a name from an unknown quantity. The man requested her if she was Ritu after which proceeded to inform her that she must be cautious as a result of she could be killed.
On one other day, the OC of the ladies’s police station referred to as her at 10 PM within the night time (she can’t affirm the date). At that point, the woman officer requested Ritu to fulfill her to debate the case (at 10 PM). Ritu first agreed to fulfill, however when she informed her buddy she was dwelling with, the buddy informed her that she shouldn’t go and meet her and he or she ought to take into consideration what she will do to her. The girl officer then referred to as her a second time, when Ritu refused to fulfill her. On the following day, she once more bought a name and even then, she had refused to fulfill.

Ritu says that the woman officer requested her if one thing had occurred to her and at this level (over the telephone), Ritu informed her how she was gang-raped. According to Ritu, the woman officer then bought indignant and began attempting to scare her, asking her if she even is aware of the which means of the allegations she was hurling. When this dialog was going down, Ritu’s buddies informed her to easily inform the officer that nothing had occurred, or else, the police would arrest her. Scared, Ritu lied and informed the woman officer then that nothing had occurred along with her in any respect. Instead, she apologised to the woman officer and confirmed that she had not filed any criticism with the police as nothing had occurred to her on the 2nd. Talking to OpIndia, Ritu additionally stated that her buddies, with whom she was taking shelter, informed her that if she informed the police what occurred to her, then they won’t let her dwell with them.
An evening earlier than the interview with OpIndia – one other risk by the police
The interview with OpIndia passed off on the twenty fourth of July 2021. On the twenty third, Ritu and her father have been each of their Burdwan home. Late that night time, a number of law enforcement officials together with a girl officer reached their home. When they reached, her father stepped out to talk to them whereas Ritu hid in the home, attempting to report the dialog that was going down between the police and her father.
Hiding, she managed to report a snippet of the dialog between her father and the woman police officer. In the recording, one can clearly hear the daddy refusing to provide any assertion to the police and the law enforcement officials attempting to persuade him to provide some assertion. Ritu says that the police have been attempting to persuade him to signal some paper which the daddy refused to do. He repeatedly informed them that they’d given their assertion to NHRC and they might not discuss additional to the police.
In the video that Ritu managed to take, her father can clearly be heard telling the police that they weren’t there to assist him or his daughter, however the TMC goons who brutalised them. He says that now, greater than the TMC goons, he’s afraid of the police.

Ritu says that the police was there to intimidate them into giving an announcement that they may then use to say that the incident by no means occurred. She additional says that first, the police was threatening and intimidating, however then, they placed on their very own telephone recording to report the dialog between her father and them. At this level, they grew to become extraordinarily well mannered to him. She additionally stated that the police knew that they’d spoken to the NHRC and narrated the horror they confronted. The feminine police officer repeatedly wished the daddy to open the lock of the door, most likely searching for Ritu.
Ritu says that a number of BJP victims are languishing in jail whereas the perpetrators of TMC are strolling round scot-free, due to this fact, the worry that they’d arrest them was actual and current.
She says that it was the identical girl officer who had taken images and movies of Ritu and the opposite ladies on the day they have been speaking to the NHRC workforce. When requested by an area BJP chief (BJP MLA of Dubarajpur) why she had executed that, the feminine officer, in response to Ritu, had turn into furious and threatened him saying “do you know who I am?”.
The NHRC criticism filed by Ritu
In her NHRC criticism, Ritu has stated that she was gang-raped by 7 TMC goondas in entrance of her father.
NHRC criticism by Ritu
In her NHRC criticism, Ritu has detailed the barbarity that was heaped upon her and her father.

She has additionally, in her criticism, talked about that the TMC goons have been threatening the father-daughter duo to hitch TMC and go away BJP.
She says:
TMC chief are always threatening us that “ Agar tum TMC mein nahi aaye… to tumahre ghar ko jala denge..papa aur tumko maar denge… Police ke paas jaoge to police bhi tumahara rape karegi agar unhe pata chal gaya ki tum BJP ki ho to.. Police bhi tumahari baat nahi sunegi”.
She additional says, “I m not only one there many other women who has faced the same fate in the village but they are scared and terrorized not to come forward. We thought of going to police next day but police were already in collusion with TMC leaders. They were helping them so due to fear we did not go to them”.
Her message to PM Modi
Ritu, who was gang-raped by TMC goons on the 2nd of May stated that there was no level giving any message to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee since she had no ‘Mamata’ left in her. However, she had an enchantment for PM Modi.
She stated that PM Modi ought to do one thing so Hindu ladies can dwell with satisfaction and safety.

She demanded that PM Modi does one thing for the safety of Hindus so we are able to all dwell fortunately.
In the interview, Ritu additional stated that every one the assistance that he had bought and the BJP leaders who had stayed in contact along with her have been leaders from Delhi. The native leaders hardly got here to assist the victims of TMC violence. She even stated that a number of the leaders would swap their telephone off and never response after they referred to as for assist.
Now, Ritu awaits justice. She says that even when it implies that she loses her life, she won’t withdraw her criticism.
(Note: This interview was organized in collaboration with GIA, the Group of Intellectuals and Academicians that has been working with post-poll violence victims to convey their tales out)