A 52-year-old woman in south Bengal’s Howrah was killed Tuesday night after she was pushed off the stairs when she tried to stop two men from molesting her college-going daughter, police said.
Police have arrested the prime accused Kush Bera. He is the husband of a local Trinamool Congress panchayat leader and was known to the girl and her family. The girl used to call him ‘uncle’.
Following the incident, two Bharatiya Janata Party MPs, Locket Chatterjee and Soumitra Khan rushed to the spot. Villagers also blocked the road.
According to the complaint lodged by the girl’s father, she had gone to the terrace of their one-storey house around midnight on Tuesday to play games on her mobile phone.
When she heard her mother climbing up the stairs she tried to hurriedly go down.
“According to the girl, the duo was hiding there. They might have climbed a tree to access the terrace. One of then caught her leg and another tried to gag her from behind. She, however, managed to raise an alarm. When her mother rushed to the terrace hearing her scream one of the two pushed her and she fell down the stairs,” said a police officer.
The woman was rushed to the hospital where doctors declared her dead. The accused’s wife Rama Bera, said her husband has been falsely implicated.
“The TMC has nothing to do with this. The law will take its own course. Police have already taken action,” Arup Roy, minister and a MLA from Howrah district.