KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court's Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench has directed the police in West Bengal's Coach Behar to give full protection to a woman who was allegedly raped by a local Trinamool Congress leader in the district.
The circuit bench of Justice Amrita Sinha has also directed the district police not to adopt any coercive action against the woman based on the first information report (FIR) filed against her by the family members of the accused Trinamool leader.
As per the case records, the accused in this case is the Trinamool's area President. He had allegedly taken Rs 5 lakh from the victim against the promise of getting her a job at a state-run school.
After not getting the job as promised, the woman started putting pressure on the accused to return her money. As per the complaint filed by the victim, the accused called her to come to a particular place to face an interview for a job.
She alleged as she reached the place, the accused leader physically assaulted and raped her. She also alleged that the accused recorded her obscene picture on his mobile and threatened her to make those pictures viral on social media if she revealed either the episode of his taking money of the promise of a job or the rape.
She filed a complaint against the ruling party leader at Dinhata police station in Cooch Behar, and thereafter the accused was arrested by the local cops.
However, soon after that, family members of the accused registered a counter FIR against the victim, accusing her of blackmail.
The victim woman alleged that since then, she had been receiving threatening calls asking her to withdraw the complaint against the accused leader. Thereafter, she approached the Calcutta High Court’s Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench for protection and obtained relief from the bench of Justice Sinha.