Agartala: Women take out protest rally over RG Kar horror, Tripura teacher's lynching

Numerous women from different walks of life here on Sunday evening organised a rally to protest the brutal rape-murder of a woman doctor in Kolkata and the lynching of a government school teacher in Tripura.     

The rally, which began from Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan, passed through most parts of the Tripura capital, with the demonstrators demanding justice in both cases.

A woman doctor in Kolkata's state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital was raped and murdered on August 9, while in Tripura, a school teacher -- Abhijit Dey (40) -- was brutally thrashed on August 8 by some persons at Udaipur in Gomati district following which succumbed to injuries on August 10.

Participants in the rally included intellectuals, students, retired teachers, doctors, theatre artists, singers, poets, writers, academicians, lawyers, engineers, journalists, among others.

One of the organisers of the rally, Supriya Sengupta, an academician, said that both the rape-murder and lynching incidents are heinous crimes that are a curse to modern civilisation.

Advocate Rumela Guha said that "this is the beginning of the uninterrupted struggle to protect the security and dignity of women".

The women's rally was supposed to be held on August 22, but due to the heavy rainfall and flooding in Tripura, it was held on Sunday.

Government school teacher Abhijit Dey was forcibly taken to the house of one Sankar Karmakar on August 8 over an allegation of sending an "objectionable message" to his minor daughter on mobile phone.

Thereafter, Dey was mercilessly beaten up by Karmakar and his associates and when his wife went to shield and save him from the assault, she was also beaten up.

Dey used to teach Karmakar's daughter, a Class 8 student, at her home.

On August 8, the girl asked the teacher to translate an English word, and he replied to the meaning of the particular word through WhatsApp chat, which was 'misinterpreted' by the girl and her parents, Dey's wife said.

Dey's wife is also a government school teacher.

The police later rescued Dey before he was taken to Gomati district hospital for medical treatment.

Dey's wife, who later filed a complaint with the police against the accused persons, said that after the assault, the girl student's family members filed a case against her husband at the Udaipur Women's Police Station with a "false accusation".

Subsequently, the teacher was arrested and presented in court, where he fell ill and started vomiting blood, following which he was again taken to the district hospital, which referred Dey to the government-run Govind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital in Agartala, where he succumbed to his injuries on August 10.

In connection with Dey's killing, Tripura Police have so far arrested four main accused -- Jayanta Saha, Sankar Karmakar, Suman Madrazee and Biswajit Saha -- and are looking for a few other attackers.

In protest against the incident, many teachers' and students' bodies, NGOs, and political parties organised protest rallies in various parts of Tripura, especially in Udaipur.