A Kolkata Police employee was arrested on charges rape and murder from Barasat. The accused was produced before Barasat court yesterday and sent to police custody.

Police said following pressure, the victim chose to go to the police station instead of resolving the issue in an arbitration meeting. Due to this move she was allegedly murdered and her body hung by the accused and her in-laws. On Friday night, police recovered the woman’s body from her in-laws’ house in North 24-Parganas. The family alleged that the main perpetrator is an officer in the Kolkata Police. On Saturday, the police arrested the officer, his wife, who is a Trinamul Congress panchayat member and the survivor’s husband.

The district court sent them to police custody on Sunday. According to police and local sources, on 9 September, the survivor had filed a rape complaint against the accused policeman, who works as a driver with city police. Reports suggest that the woman had been renting a house at the police employee’s place for the past six months due to family disputes. She claimed that on the morning of 5 September, the policeman raped her. The woman has two children, and her husband works in another state. She stated that on the night of 5 September, around 2 am, the accused entered her room while she was sleeping with her daughter. He allegedly gagged her and raped her in the next room.

The survivor had claimed that the accused threatened to kill her after the assault. She was pressured by the accused to settle the matter in a local arbitration, but she refused and went to the police instead. The accused had been absconding since the incident. After this, the woman returned to her in-laws’ house, where, on Friday, her body was found hanging in a room on the second floor.

The police recovered the body, which was already taken down by family members. It was sent for autopsy at Barasat Medical College Hospital. On Saturday, the woman’s brother filed a complaint at the police station, alleging that she was murdered and then hanged. Based on his complaint, the police arrested the woman’s husband and his panchayat member wife.

In his complaint, the woman’s brother stated that his sister had been physically and mentally abused by her husband and in-laws since their marriage, which forced her to live in a rented house. He claimed that the police officer, his wife, and the in-laws conspired to murder his sister to cover up the rape incident. The panchayat member denied the allegations, claiming that her husband was not involved in the rape, and that another man had assaulted the woman. She also called the murder accusation false.

Local Trinamul leader Bapi Majumdar said, “The party does not support any wrongdoing. If the panchayat member is guilty, the law will take its course. The party will not interfere.” The police are investigating, and the cause of death will be clear after the autopsy report.