Author: Bidyut Roy
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 9, 2009
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hours-after-nandigram-rape-victims-vote-rob/456625/
Introduction: Victim took shelter in brother's
house, says CPM put pressure on him to withdraw rape case
Hours after Sabina Begum (name changed to
protect her identity), a Nandigram rape victim, was intimidated and not allowed
to vote yesterday, alleged CPM cadres raided the house of her brother, 50-year-old
Yaseen Meer, and hacked him to death.
As first reported in The Indian Express today,
it was at her brother's house that Sabina had sought shelter when she wasn't
allowed to enter the Satengabari primary school polling booth despite a valid
Election Commission card with a valid number (withheld to protect her identity).
She and her husband had fled their home after
Sabina was allegedly raped by a gang of CPM cadres during the violent Operation
Recapture in November 2007 in the wake of the SEZ land acquisition controversy.
Yesterday, they walked 10 km to their polling booth where they were turned
back by CPM cadres and not allowed to vote.
Her brother, Yaseen, a daily labourer and
a supporter of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, had also received threats
but he ignored these, cast his vote yesterday - and paid with his life. The
Trinamool Congress has called a 12-hour Nandigram bandh tomorrow to protest
against what it calls police inaction.
Sabina claimed there was more to her brother's
murder than political vendetta. "Those who attacked my brother's house
last night included some who sexually assaulted me in November 2007. They
put pressure on my brother asking him to get me to withdraw my rape case,"
she told The Indian Express today.
Of the five named she mentioned in her rape
FIR, four are at large, one was arrested but later released on bail.
According to Yaseen's wife, Hasina Bibi, CPM
cadres kept a watch on their house since morning and saw that Sabina and her
husband had taken shelter there.
Soon after Yaseen returned home in the evening
after dropping Sabina off at her house in Samsabad village, the cadres came
calling. "They first picked up a quarrel and then beat him with sticks,
later two of them stabbed him.
Yaseen was bleeding profusely," said
Hasina, who claimed she witnessed the murder.
Yaseen was taken to Tamluk hospital where
he was declared dead. Hasina lodged a complaint with the Nandigram police
station and named, among others, Touhid, Hasanur and Kalu Bachchu - all known
CPM men in Satengabari.
Said Pallab Kanti Ghosh, SP of East Midnapore:
"They are saying miscreants are from the CPM but I cannot say at this
moment." He said that in another incident in the same village, a child
died of gunshot wounds and her mother, Ali Bibi, was admitted to hospital
with gunshot injuries. The attackers in this incident were also alleged CPM
cadres.
When asked if there was any connection between
Sabina's rape case and her brother's murder, the SP declined to comment.
Nandigram Block Development Officer Anirban
Chattopadhyay said he had ordered an inquiry to "ascertain the circumstances
under which she (Sabina) could not cast her vote yesterday despite having
valid EC identity cards."
