The Park Street rape survivor died of Encephalitis on Friday morning. She was suffering from Encephalitis for a long time and was undergoing treatment at a private nursing home in south Kolkata since a few days.
She had complained of laryngitis and was admitted to the Calcutta Medical College on Thursday. Following a serious deterioration in her health, she was shifted to the ICU where she died of multiple organ failure at 6.30am. She is survived by two young daughters.
The Park Street rape case hit headlines in February 2012, after the survivor was gang-raped at gunpoint in Kolkata’s Park Street. The survivor came out strongly against her aggressors. While Indian laws forbid the disclosure of a rape victim's identity, she chose to not hide hers.
She also earned the ire of West Bengal's chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who went so far as to say that the survivor was a liar. Top cops including then Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Damayanti Sen had said that she was raped.
After she claimed she was was discriminated by the restobar @Ginger for being a rape survivor, Banerjee had dismissed it as a 'sajana ghatana' or “cooked-up incident”.
A year after the incident, she started leading movements for rape victims and stood for them. She was working for the empowerment of other rape survivors by working at a helpline centre.
The family will be carrying out a funeral on Saturday. Her relatives from Australia are likely to arrive by Friday evening.
Meanwhile, her lawyer has said that her case will continue despite her sudden death. "Her fight will continue. Her death will not affect the investigation of case and I am going to fight the case," lawyer Anirban Guha said.
