Kamduni erupted again on Saturday to protest against the judgment delivered on Friday in a rape case that had shaken Bengal.
Political leaders and activists from Kolkata and elsewhere joined the villagers, who were holding a road blockade at Kamduni Mor (crossing).
The Calcutta High Court judgment on Friday had acquitted one man who had been sentenced to death by a lower court earlier for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old college student from the village, about 20km from Kolkata, in 2013. The death sentences of two others were transmuted to life sentences. The life sentences of three of the accused were reduced to seven years.
The protesters felt that the punishment was not severe enough. They have decided to move the Supreme Court to challenge the judgment. On Saturday, they sat on the road at Kamduni Mor from about 3pm to 5.30pm. Traffic was obstructed by the road blockade.
The college girl, a first-generation learner, had been grabbed from the small road that branches into Kamduni village from the crossing, dragged into an enclosure, raped and murdered. The spot is not far from the crossing.
“We plan to visit Delhi next week and also meet the President and the Prime Minister,” said Tumpa Koyal, who has been leading the protests that began immediately after the incident of rape. She was a close friend of the murdered girl from childhood.
The protesters have questioned the investigation by the police and the CID into the incident and accused them of tampering with evidence. The protest on Saturday was attended by Kaustubh Bagchi from the Congress, Ramola Chakraborty from the CPI(M) and Sukanta Majumdar from the BJP.
“The best thing about Saturday’s protest was that after a long time, villagers came out in large numbers to join,” said Pradip Mukherjee, a former schoolmaster who has also led the protests from 2013.
But some expressed fear that the presence of political parties may interfere with what still remains a people’s movement and politicise it.