Now Trinamool MP says Park Street case not rape, denies

At a time when the issue of gender sensitivity has become the talk of the nation in the wake of the brutal gangrape of a 23-year old girl in Delhi, Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has become the latest to join the list of politicians whose unsavoury comments against women and rapes have drawn criticism.

Speaking to CNN-IBN channel Friday, the MP kicked of a fresh row discounting the Park Street gangrape incident as a rape case. "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," she was quoted as saying to the news channel.

She also defended CM Mamata Banerjee's handling of the case.

Dastidar's remarks on TV triggered angry responses. She later refuted the charges, saying she never said what was being aired by the channel.

"What can I do if the news channels keep saying what I did not say? The news channel wanted me to comment on Anisur Rehman's comment against our CM. I told something about it. Later, they asked me something about Delhi gangrape incident and attempted to compare it with the Park Street incident. I told them that the two cannot be compared. It is an established fact that the woman in Delhi incident was tortured brutally unlike in the Park Street case. I did not say what they are putting in my mouth," Dastidar told The Indian Express.

In her reaction, the Park Street rape victim told The Indian Express that the MP's comment was not only derogatory but also uncalled for. "It comes at a time when the case in being tried in court. How could a woman, who is holding a high post, make such a comment? Was she present when I was being raped?"

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