West Bengal rape: Mamata cries conspiracy even as Nitish Kumar announces Rs 1 lakh for victim's kin

KOLKATA: In a much embarrassment to Mamata Banerjee, her counterpart in Bihar, Nitish Kumar on Thursday announced some financial help to the family of the rape victim who died in a city hospital here on Tuesday night.

The victim and her family hail from Bihar and the 16-year-old girl, who was raped on October 25 last year, had died on Tuesday in a government-run hospital. Describing the death as “most unfortunate”, Kumar also said that his government will render all possible help to the family if it wanted to return to Bihar.

Following the Bihar chief minister’s instruction, the inspector general of police (Special Branch), GS Gangwar reached Kolkata on Thursday to meet the family which had expressed complete no trust on West Bengal police regarding their security.

The family met West Bengal governor MK Narayanan on Wednesday and sought his protection. Gangwar is likely to gather detailed information regarding the incident which he will submit to the Bihar government.

It is learnt that the Bihar chief minister had given an ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh to the kin of the victim. CPM central committee member Goutam Deb has also announced on Thursday that the party's North 24-Parganas unit will hand over Rs 1 lakh to the family on January 8.

Till now, Mamata’s government has not announced any financial help for the family, even though the state chief secretary Sanjoy Mitra told reporters that the government will give all possible help to the family.

The victim's father is a taxi driver and very close to the CPM trade union arm, Citu, which has reportedly urged him not to leave Bengal. Mamata Banerjee's government is in a tight spot over the incident as the NCW chairperson Mamata Sharma has asked West Bengal government to submit a detailed report on the death within a week. Without making any direct reference to the incident, Mamata told reporters on Thursday that conspiracy was being hatched against her government.