Hummingbird News Desk
KRISHNAGAR, 23 APRIL: Days after the Calcutta High Court order, a medical team of state the government on Saturday reached Hanskhali and carried out medical checkups of the family members of the minor girl who was allegedly gang-raped at the birthday party of the local Trinamul Congress panchayat member’s son before being burnt at an unregistered crematorium by the accused.
The doctors of the medical team accompanied by the Bogula block medical officer of health talked with the family members and registered information about their present mental condition.
The family of the 14-year-old girl who died on April 5 after being raped at Hanskhali in Bengal’s Nadia district has been allowed by the Calcutta high court to seek protection from the state government.
In its ruling on a petition filed last week, the bench of chief justice Prakash Srivastava and justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj on Wednesday said the family can seek protection under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018, and the authorities will have to provide them security till a decision is taken on their request.
“Having regard to the nature of allegations which have been made in the application it is necessary to extend protection to the members of the family as also witnesses of the incident. Hence, we permit the filing of the witness protection application before the competent authority as specified in Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 and on receipt of such application the competent authority is directed to take a decision and pass appropriate order for witness protection, proportionate to the threat perception, in accordance with the Scheme, without any unnecessary delay,” said Wednesday’s court order.
“Till the said application is decided, the concerned authority will extend full protection to the witnesses and family members of the victim and will also ensure suitable psychiatric/ psychological treatment to them to come out of trauma,” the order added.
Tags: MedicalTeam #Hanskhali #MinorRape #PsychologicalStatus #CalcuttaHighCourt