Nandigram: Women complain sexual assault - NDTV.com - News on Nandigram: Women complain sexual assault

Nandigram: Women complain sexual assault - NDTV.com - News on Nandigram: Women complain sexual assault

Nandigram: Women complain sexual assault

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Mohuya Chaudhuri, Bano Haralu

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 (Nandigram):


The bloody images of the police firing that shook Bengal on March 14 is slowly being replaced by an equally horrifying reality, brutal sexual assault of women.


"That night, I was hiding in a hedge behind my house. I heard screams from the school across the road. Girls crying out in pain, pleading to be let go. It was unbearable. The next morning, they had all disappeared. We don't know what happened to them," said a villager.

Testimonies like this are now backed by shocking evidence documented by medical teams that are treating many of the injured in Nandigram. The evidence reveals that several women were molested, tortured and raped.

A ten-member team of doctors, nurses and pharmacists of Medical Service Centre, a voluntary organisation that works in disaster zones, visited the affected villages two days after the incident and treated 400 injured people, most of whom were women.

"There were bullet injuries and blunt injuries caused by lathis. Six women also said they had been raped. Our nurses examined them and confirmed it. Some also had bruises in the genital area caused by batons," said Dr Ashok Samanta, Vice president, Medical Research Centre.

Despite the trauma, none of these women went to the Nandigram hospital, out of fear. But the police have now registered five cases of rape.

Little assurance

Twenty five year old Gouri Pradhan, admitted at the district hospital at Tamluk, says men in uniform attacked her on the day of the firing.

"When they began to fire shots at us, I ran away and hid behind a wall. Three policemen saw me and dragged me into a house. I don't know what happened after that. I fell unconscious," said Pradhan.

"They beat me up. Policemen took me to a neighbour's house and then I fell unconscious," said another victim Kajal Majhi.

The results of their medical examination have not come so far. As more and women come forward with charges of rape against the police and the CPM cadre, senior police officials say investigations have begun.

"We are taking up these cases and doing the best we can," said Raj Kanojia, IG, Law and Order, West Bengal.

But there is little assurance for villagers who have come to dread the uniform.

The fear is so great that in places like Gokulnagar, Adhikaripara and Sonachura areas, which bore the brunt of the violence, villagers have fled, not knowing when it will be safe to return home again.