West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said stricter provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Criminal Procedural Code (CrPc) were needed to prevent atrocities on women.

“It is for the Centre to make the amendments and ensure that provisions of the law are made more stringent. We (as States) will follow the law,” Banerjee told a regional news channel this afternoon. She added that perpetrators of crimes (such as rape) should not be forgiven and neither should the incidents be glorified.

Her remarks came on a day when the West Bengal Government was subjected to severe criticism from the Congress for prolonged failure to arrest the prime accused in a rape incident that took place in the city nearly a year ago.

To add to the controversy, Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Friday referred to the incident as a “misunderstanding” between two parties engaged in a professional dealing. “This was not a rape”, she told a TV channel.

The remarks attracted sharp criticism from Union Minister of State for Urban Development Deepa Dasmunsi on Saturday.

Addressing a rally at the central business district, Dasmunsi said, “The victim has been claiming for the past 10 months that she was raped….But, the State Government could not arrest the (prime) accused till date. The chief minister has asked for amendment to law. But, her state has such a law and order situation where the accused are roaming freely.”

Referring to Dastidar’s remarks, Dasmunsi said the Trinamool MP’s statement was “shameful” and tantamount to character assassination of the rape victim.

“How can she say such things being a woman?” she asked.

Union Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too denounced the tendency of accusing rape victims for the crime. “We are blaming the rape victim in most of the cases. This is a mental and political derangement.”

> ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in

> abhishek.l @thehindu.co.in

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