Voices from Kamduni

The sessions court verdict in the Kamduni gang rape case has been welcomed by the villagers and activists who have been protesting both the atrocity as well as the complicity of the state government in the act.

The author thanks the anonymous reviewer for the current version of the article.

Crimes against women have made West Bengal (ironically) a topper among states. Frequent instances of violence against women are dominating the headlines of the state for the last four years. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics published in 2014, Bengal was at the top of the list for crimes against women accounting for 12.67% of crimes committed in the country.

In January 2016 a sessions court found six of the eight accused men in the Kamduni gang rape case guilty. This rape case was one of the several rape cases that were brought to the limelight by concerned citizens and the media. In 2013 a college student was raped and killed in Kamduni, a village about 30 km from Kolkata, provoking massive protests against the inaction of the ruling party with respect to crimes against women. It was also clear that such criminals, with political connections, were getting protection from the state administration and the political party ruling the state.