Many women in West Bengal petitioned the Supreme Court, alleging gang rapes during the post-election violence, and requested an SIT investigation.
According to the Times of India, after the assembly elections, a 60-year-old widow said that TMC members walked right into her house in a hamlet in Purba Medinipur. She claimed that on the night of May 4-5, she was abused in front of her six-year-old grandson. She was also robbed of her valuables.
She also claimed that on May 3, a mob of 100-200 TMC activists threatened to bomb her residence. The next day, her concerned daughter-in-law left the house. On the night of May 4-5, five workers barged into her home, assaulted her, and threatened her. The woman claimed that despite her providing all five perpetrators' names, and even though a medical report also confirmed the rape, the police chose to name only one in the FIR. She has asked for a court-ordered SIT investigation.
On May 9, a 17-year-old Scheduled Caste minor girl petitioned the Supreme Court, asking for an investigation by the SIT and the CBI into her alleged gang rape by TMC employees. She said that she was kidnapped and left to die in the bush after being dragged in by TMC supporters.
The next day after the incident, a TMC local leader named Bahadur SK came to her house and threatened her family members for filing a complaint. She said in her SC application that he threatened to burn down their house and murder them if they did so.
She stated that she is being held in a Child Welfare Home and that her parents are not permitted to visit her. Instead of sympathizing with her and her family, the local police/administration has been harassing her family, claiming that their second daughter may meet the same fate, she added, requesting an independent investigation.
Purnima Mondal's spouse, Dharma Mondol, was killed by alleged TMC workers during the post-election rioting. She told the SC that "such is the vengeful nature of the violence that the applicant's husband, who campaigned for BJP, was subsequently identified and assaulted with axes in broad daylight on May 14."
Purnima claimed she had no alternative but to stand idly by as her husband and brother-in-law were beaten. She was stripped of her clothes, seized, and fought to survive a rape attempt on her body by two members of the same violent crowd. Following that, the applicant's husband died on May 16.
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