Tension prevailed in the Jayanagar area in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Sunday as the local people protested against police apathy in the minor girl's rape and murder case.
The local people accused the police of showing a lackadaisical attitude in addressing the early intimation by the victim's parents about their daughter being missing.
The parents have alleged that although they intimated the police about their missing daughter on Friday evening, the cops refused to act promptly. They started the investigation only after the body of the victim was recovered from a nearby canal after Friday midnight.
The victim's parents alleged that the cops did not take their intimation of their missing daughter seriously and had they done their job immediately, such a ghastly tragedy could have been averted.
Since Saturday morning, hundreds of local people started protesting near Jaynagar Police Station accusing police of negligence. As time passed the protests became violent and the people attacked the police station. A local police camp was ransacked and set on fire. The police had to resort to massive lathi-charge to dispel the mob.
Additional police forces rushed to the area to bring the situation under control and continued to stay put following the continuation of the tension in the area.
Meanwhile, Mostakin Sardar, the arrested accused in the rape and murder of the minor girl has confessed to murdering the girl, sources from the district police said on Sunday. However, he has not admitted to raping the girl, the sources added.
Palash Chandra Dhali, the Superintendent of Police, Baruipur district, under whose jurisdiction Jaynagar comes, said that whether the incident of rape took place or not, it will only be known after the post-mortem of the body is done.
State police sources said the arrested accused so far had not shown any kind of repentance even after confessing to his involvement in the murder. The cops are now trying to investigate what prompted him to conduct such a ghastly crime.
(With inputs from IANS)
