Kolkata, Dec 29: Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has courted controversy by alluding to the Kolkata gang rape victim as a sex worker.
Ghosh Dastidar, short of calling the Park Street rape victim a prostitute, said the incident in the heart of Kolkata in February, was not a rape but a “ misunderstanding between two parties involved in professional dealings. Between the lady and her client.”
“ If you're referring to the Park Street rape, see that is a different case altogether that was not at all a rape case. It was a misunderstanding between the two parties involved, between a lady and her client. This was not a rape,” Ghosh Dastidar told a TV channel.
The MP claimed that whatever she was saying was as per the police report.
Ghosh Dastidar made the comment while reacting to the derogatory remarks made by CPM leader Anisur Rehman against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in North Dinajpur district on Wednesday.
Referring to Mamata's demands for Rs 20,000 as compensation for rape victims, Anisur Rehman had asked how much Mamata would demand as compensation if she too were sexually assaulted. Rehman apologised after the remarks triggered a political storm.
Asked about Ghosh Dastidar's remark, senior Trinamool leader and panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee told reporters: “ You ask her.”
Describing the comment as appalling, CPM leader Mohd Salim said “ this is the mindset of the Trinamool Congress government.”
An Anglo- Indian woman was raped in a car on February 6 while she was returning home from Park Street.
The woman criticised Ghosh Dastidar for her remarks, calling it shameful. Making such derogatory remarks is abominable. I am deeply shattered by this. I was vindicated by the officers,” she said.
