'Rape, pregnant or love affair': Mamata Banerjee on Bengal teen's rape

After a TMC leader's son was arrested in connection with alleged rape of a teenaged girl, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that there is no need to drag the party into the matter.

'Police also doesn’t know anything yet, we had asked. It is being reported that a girl has died after apparently being raped. Was it rape or was she pregnant or was it a love affair? Have you enquired about this?' she said at a public event.

Banerjee said that the incident was wrong but an arrest has already been made.

She also questioned the delay in filing the complaint by the family

'The girl died on April 5 and the police found out on April 10. You tell me, if someone died on April 5 and there was something untoward about it then why wasn’t a complaint filed with the police on that day itself,' she said.

Also watch: Bengal teen 'raped' at birthday bash, dies: TMC leader's son held

The West Bengal chief minister also asked how is the police supposed to gather evidence now that the body has been cremated.

The girl's family has alleged that a group of people forcibly took the minor’s body for cremation even before her death certificate was issued.

'Whether it was an actual rape or was she pregnant or was there any other reason? Did someone slap her or was she unwell? She had a love affair, even family knows that.'

The TMC chief also said that it was not upto her to stop a boy or girl if they want to be together. She added that like UP, she won't start a 'love jihad' discourse in Bengal.

Referring to the arrest of a TMC leader's son, she said that in West Bengal everyone is connected to TMC.

'Father is TMC supporter, mother is also TMC supporter, brother is also TMC supporter, aunt is also TMC supported. What is the need to drag TMC into it.'

A minor girl died after she was allegedly gang-raped at a birthday party in Hanskhali in West Bengal’s Nadia district, police said on Sunday.

The girl’s family claimed that the main accused is the son of a Trinamool Congress panchayat member, who has been arrested for further investigation, they said.

The parents of the minor, a student of Class 9, lodged a complaint against the accused at Hanskhali police station on Saturday, four days after the incident. According to the complaint, the girl went to the residence of the accused on Monday afternoon to attend his birthday party, but she returned home in an ailing condition and died soon after.

“Our daughter was bleeding profusely and had severe abdominal pain after she came back from the party at the residence of the local TMC leader's son, and before we could take her to hospital, she died.

"From the sequence of events and after talking to the people present at the party, we are sure she was gang-raped by the accused and his friends,” the girl’s mother told reporters.

She also alleged that a group of people forcibly took the minor’s body for cremation even before her death certificate was issued.