West Bengal governor M.K. Narayanan, who is the rector of Visvabharati University, has sought a detailed report from the authorities on the incident where a Class 5 girl of Patha Bhavan was forced to drink her own urine by the hostel warden as a punishment for bed-wetting. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has also sought a report as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the Chancellor of Visvabharati. The outrage sparked by the inhuman incident continued on Tuesday.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said that the incident was both shameful and painful. “It is certainly unfortunate that such a deplorable incident occurred in Rabindranath Tagore’s abode,” he added.
The traumatised girl, Punita Mistry, has refused to return to the hostel. Her father Manoj Mistry on Tuesday received a call from Patha Bhavan principal Bodhirupa Sinha. “She inquired about the health of my daughter. She then told me that if Punita is not willing to stay in the hostel then she can study in the school as day scholar,” Mr Mistry said.
The parents of the girl has decided against accepting any monetary help from the Visvabharati for their daughter’s treatment. “We are grateful to the court for giving this ruling but we think it will be degrading to accept money from them,” he added.
The Bolpur court had also chastised the police for not slapping more stringent charges against warden Uma Poddar. On Tuesday, the police lodged a case under section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act which deals with cruelty to a child and has a maximum punishment of six months imprisonment or fine or both. “Following the court order, we have brought in section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act against Poddar,” superintendent of police (Birbhum) Rishikesh Meena said. He said they were also looking into the complaint that the police acted overzealously in arresting the parents of the tortured child