Bengal to pass a Bill to ensure capital punishment for rapists, says Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal CM

West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, questioning the progress in the CBI's investigation into the  rape-murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor in  Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital, announced that she will call an assembly session next week and pass a Bill within 10 days to ensure capital punishment for rapists.

"We will send this Bill to the Governor. If he doesn't pass, we will sit outside Raj Bhavan. This Bill must be passed and he cannot evade accountability this time," she said while speaking on the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Addressing a public event to mark the foundation day of Trinamool Congress's students' wing, the Chief Minister said she met the victim's parents two days after she was found dead on duty in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. "I asked for five days' time, but the case was sent to the CBI. They don't want justice. They want delay. It has been 16 days, where is justice?" she asked.

The streets of Kolkata were gripped by violence and chaos following a protest rally that took a wrong turn in the state capital. Following this, Union Minister and West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumder had called for a ‘12-hour bandh’ in the state.

On Tuesday, a protest march to West Bengal Secretariat ‘Nabanna’ was organised by the ‘Paschim Banga Chatra Samaj’ and other organisations, which aimed to protest the recent rape and murder of a doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

The rally termed ‘Nabanna Abhiyan’ started from the College Square in the capital of West Bengal, amid heightened security around the West Bengal state secretariat with protestors gathering at the Santragachi area in Howrah.