West Bengal is crying for special attention from the entire nation – the media, judiciary, central government, academia, social workers, especially women and child rights activists – but it seems as if everyone has given up on the state for good. We have been highlighting the deteriorating condition of women and children’s safety in the state, and now the situation has hit such an abyss that we are witnessing multiple incidents of preying on children on the same day from different parts of West Bengal.

In the first incident, a minor was gang-raped on April 2 in Malda district. The 13-year-old victim had gone to the Urush fair held in Uttar Shaldaha village near Chandipur in the Harishchandrapur police station area. Her family accompanied her. But the minor became the target of a gang when she went to a secluded area for nature’s call around midnight; they grabbed the girl by her face, dragged her, and kidnapped her on a motorbike. They then took her to the roof of an abandoned health centre behind Chandipur High School, situated a few kilometres away. They raped her repeatedly, and after the girl lost consciousness, the rapists fled. 

The family members were able to locate the girl later and admitted her to the hospital where her medical examination was conducted. The victim’s mother made a complaint with the Harishchandrapur police station on Saturday itself. As per the statements given by the district police, two people were arrested but their identity has not been revealed.

In another horrifying incident from Malda, a 4-and-a-half-years-old child was raped by another minor. The incident has triggered a massive stir in the Narayanpur Colony area of Manikchak Police Station, where it took place. The accused is on the loose.

According to local sources and the police, the victim was playing in the backyard of her home on the evening of Saturday, April 2, while the elders in the house had gone to visit the next-door neighbours. Taking advantage of her being alone, a predator from a neighbouring house entered the house and raped the little one. When the elders returned, they found the child screaming in immense pain. The child was rushed to Manikchak Rural Hospital, and her sexual abuse came to light.

Manikchak police officials said that family members registered a written complaint the next morning. The minor accused fled after committing the crime and is still on the loose. Investigations are underway; family members of the victim have demanded the harshest punishment for the accused.

In the third incident from Saturday, a 9-year-old was sexually assaulted by a 56-year-old man in Samserganj, Murshidabad district reports local daily Sangbadpratidin. The girl is a resident of Sherpur village in the Samserganj police station area and was playing in a mango orchard near her house in the afternoon. At around noon, the 56-year-old hailing from Aurangabad lured her with chocolates and took her to an isolated place where he tried to abuse her sexually. The girl retaliated and started screaming, hearing which the locals rushed to her rescue. The accused, again, fled the scene.

A complaint has been registered at the Samserganj police station, and officials visited the spot. Police have also successfully arrested the accused. Further investigations are underway.

It is disturbing and unnerving that in all three cases, the victims were minors ranging from 4 to 13 years in age. These cases should have created a national-wide stir, especially given that they all occurred on the same day. But the mainstream media of our country is controlled by left-liberals who deliberately steer clear from exposing the social decay and lawlessness in the Mamata Banerjee-ruled state.

While ‘secular’ politicians and ‘journalists’ stay busy peddling the fake narrative of ‘women being unsafe’ in BJP-ruled states like UP and Goa, they pay no heed to the appallingly dangerous environment that West Bengal has created for its children, especially girls.

These are just the cases that have seen complaints being filed and/or reached local media and online activists. How many more cases of violence against women and children may have gone unnoticed due to police apathy, fear of retribution from political/Islamist goons or due to fear of social ostracization, is for the readers’ understanding and imagination. We have seen how only a handful of cases, from the 7000 molestations/rapes recorded in the immediate aftermath of the brutal post-poll anti-Hindu pogrom last year, finally made it to courts.