Supreme Court takes cognizance suo motu in West Bengal gang rape Case

The Supreme Court, today, has taken suo motu cognizance of dreadful incident of gang rape of a young tribal woman by 13 villagers in West Bengal and issued notice to the state government.

As per the reports, as soon as the three judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam and also comprising, Justices Ranjan Gogoi and MY Eqbal assembled for the hearing, it expressed shock over the incident, which has hit the headlines, and took cognizance of the matter.

The bench passed an order directing district judge of Birbhum in West Bengal to visit the place and file a report before it within a week.

The gang rape of the 20-year-old woman was allegedly ordered by a village head at a kangaroo court in Labhpur in Kolkata, as punishment for falling in love with a man from a different religion.

The tribal woman, who was gang-raped by 13 persons after a 'salishi sabha' or kangaroo court decided to punish her on January 21, is battling for her life at a hospital in Suri.

Reports say that the victim and her paramour were caught, tied to a tree and assaulted after which they were asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. The gang rape took place after the girl expressed her inability to pay the amount. All the accused, including village head have been arrested and were presented before a court there which has remanded them to 14 days' judicial custody.

Read the order