The All-India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) and All India Students’ Association (AISA) have announced a statewide agitation against the growing incidents of rape and murder of women and students in Bihar, including the shocking killing of a NEET aspirant in Patna. The organisations will launch a Beti Bachao-Nyay Yatra [Save the daughter- Justice March] and culminate the agitation with a march to the Bihar Assembly on 11 February. The march will begin from Jehanabad and pass through Aurangabad and other districts of the Magadh range from 4 to 10 February. Before the march, a public hearing will be held on 3 February to strengthen the struggle for justice and against violence against women.
Addressing a press conference in Patna on 27 January, AIPWA General Secretary Comrade Meena Tiwari said that the revelations emerging in the murder of a NEET student staying at Shambhu Girls Hostel in Patna have raised serious questions on the role of the government and the police administration. She said that the FSL report confirming rape has exposed the false claims and hurried narrative built by the police to deny sexual assault even before the postmortem report was available.
Comrade Meena Tiwari said that violence against women and girl students in Bihar has ceased to be an exception and has instead become a dangerous trend. She referred to the suspicious death of another NEET student in Aurangabad and pointed out that cases of sexual violence, suspicious deaths and murders of students are continuously coming to light across the state, while the government is providing protection to the perpetrators.
She said that the victim had clearly told her mother in the hospital that she had been sexually assaulted, and the family had seen severe injury marks on her body. Despite this, the police held a press conference and denied rape even before forensic and postmortem reports were available. “Who authorised the police to make such claims, and under whose pressure was the truth sought to be suppressed?” she asked.
The victim’s family, she said, is not satisfied with the SIT probe and is demanding a CBI investigation. If the government’s intentions are clean, there should be no fear of an independent investigation, she asserted. She added that the government stands in the dock in this entire matter and public anger is rapidly growing across Bihar.
The press conference was also attended by AIPWA leader Divya Gautam, AISA state president Preeti Kumari and state co-secretary Kumar Divyam. The organisations called upon democratic sections to join the struggle to ensure justice for the victims and accountability of the state.
