New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday directed West Bengal’s chief secretary to submit a detailed report on the gang rape of a 19-year-old tribal girl in the state’s Birbhum district.
A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice M.Y. Eqbal said that they were not satisfied with the report sent by the Birbhum district judge as it had no information on action taken by the authorities.
The court said that on its Jan 24 order, Birbhum’s district judge, along with the chief judicial magistrate and a team of people inspected the place in question and submitted a report to the apex court.
“In the report, we do not find any information about the steps taken by police against the persons concerned,” the court said.
It accordingly directed the apex court’s registrar to forward a copy of the district judge’s report to the state chief secretary, who, in turn, was asked to submit a detailed report and the follow up action by police within a period of two weeks.
The court asked Additional Solicitor General Sidharth Luthra to assist it in the matter.
Giving two weeks’ time to the chief secretary to submit the report, the court ordered the listing of the matter for Feb 14.
The apex court, Jan 24, had taken suo motu cognisance of the gang rape, describing it as “very disturbing”. The court issued a notice to the Bengal government and sought a report from the district judge within a week.
The victim was allegedly gang raped on the orders of the village head as punishment for falling in love with a man from a different community.