MP gets 10 years for gang-rape

KOLKATA: Justice finally caught up with the All India Forward Bloc MP from West Bengal, Bir Singh Mahato, when he was sentenced for 10 years by a district court on Friday for raping a housewife in November 1982.

The rape took place in a village in Purulia district when 37 Forward Bloc party workers led by Mahato attacked the house of a political rival and raped his wife.

Mahato, who has been elected to Parliament five times with huge margins, was produced before the additional sessions judge in Purulia and was later sent to Purulia jail.

Three other accused were also convicted and sentenced along with him. The convicts were also fined a sum of Rs. 5,000 each by the sessions court special judge Subhas Chandra Chattopadhayay.

The rape victim's mother-in-law had recently identified Mahato as one of the five men who had raped her daughter-in-law on Nov 20, 1982, in Parshidi village of Purulia district in south Bengal.

The woman told the court that she had been gagged and tied up while her daughter-in-law was taken to another room and raped.

The woman also identified another man, Budhu Singha Mura, as one of the rapists. Mahato, an MP from Purulia district, said he was framed and would appeal in a higher court against the verdict.
In Kolkata, Forward Bloc state president Ashok Ghosh said the party would react only after carefully considering the verdict.