West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that she will pass a bill in the state assembly to ensure that rapists get capital punishment. She also blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using his party to create trouble in Bengal. Meanwhile, junior doctors took out a public rally from RG Kar to Esplanade. Banerjee urged the doctors to return to work promising that she will not taken action against the junior doctors or file FIRs against them — a statement, the doctors claim is a veiled threat to them.
The protesting junior doctors said that if the Commissioner of Police and former RG Kar Principal Sandip Ghosh are removed from their posts and the deceased medical student gets justice, they will join work. “We want these demands to be considered by the chief minister. Then, we will join work,” a student protestor said.
Speaking at the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s Foundation Day, Banerjee said, “Next week, we will call an assembly special session and pass a Bill within 10 days to ensure capital punishment for rapists. We will send this Bill to the Governor. If he doesn’t pass, we will sit outside the Raj Bhavan. This Bill must be passed. He cannot evade accountability this time.”
She dedicated the TMCP Foundation Day held on Wednesday to the medical student who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Hospital on August 9.
“The highest punishment is capital punishment under the law of the land. I don’t know if the assembly can pass such a law,” BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said.
Blaming PM Modi for using his party to create trouble in Bengal, she said: “If you set Bengal on fire, remember, the fire will spread to Assam, North East, Jharkhand, Odisha and all the states of eastern region and they will burn. Your (PM’s) chair will be shaken and your chair will be in trouble,” Banerjee said. “Your (Centre’s) law is not strong for women’s security. We want capital punishment for rapists.”
“If you have the power, go for polls,” she challenged and urged all her party MPs, MLAs and party leaders to be active on social media and counter fake social media campaigns.
“They want to play politics with dead bodies while we want capital punishment for the accused. They want to divert the real movement and malign the state,” she said.
