12 Kolkata: The parents and sister of the 14-year-old girl who was brutally killed and raped by a toto driver from her neighbourhood left their Gouraganagar home on Monday and moved to their ancestral house at Swarupnagar in North 24 Parganas.
"It is difficult to stay there any more. The more time we spend at that house, the more guilt we feel for not paying more attention to her and allowing her to leave home after the minor altercation. If she had not left home on Thursday night, she would still be alive," the girl's mother said on Monday.
The class VIII student's father had told TOI on Saturday that the girl had a tiff with her mother on Thursday over studies. Annoyed, the girl left home in a huff. She was possibly heading towards her uncle's home in Baguiati but either lost her way or was too tired to walk any more. Then she tried to hail a ride back home and fell into the trap of the toto driver, Soumitra Roy (22).
The family said they are yet to complete the last rites of the girl and will complete the formalities next week at their Swarupnagar home with the rest of the family. "We shifted to Gouranganagar primarily to facilitate the education of my two daughters. Now that one of my daughters is no more, we don't have much reason to live here," the girl's mother said.
The father, an inland master in the merchant navy, had demanded the death penalty for Roy. But the mother expressed doubt that it was the handiwork of just one person. Senior cops met the family again on Sunday and told her in detail about the progress of the investigation, following which, she said on Monday that she was convinced by the way the investigation was proceeding. "The cops have been extremely helpful. They have kept their promise and arrested the culprit within 72 hours. I trust their investigation and hope my daughter will get justice," she said.
The family said that between Sunday and Monday, they held a small puja at their home, praying for the departed soul of their daughter. The home was closed to outsiders, and those from the neighbourhood and a section of the media who came to express solidarity, were politely asked to return.