Early in the day, Adhikari was stopped by police at Dhamakhali citing prohibitory orders even as he was granted permission by the Calcutta High Court on Monday to visit the area. He, however, was allowed to go after a division bench of HC on Tuesday refused to interfere with the single-judge bench order.
Adhikari, who along with another BJP MLA Sankar Ghosh talked to the alleged victims of violence and sexual abuse in the area, said, “The experiences narrated by the locals are spine-chilling. Their lands have been usurped, and women exploited… and everything happened with the help of the police and the administration. The situation is completely horrific and is a clear example of anarchy prevailing in the area.”
“The people of Sandeshkhali want Shahjahan Sheikh (TMC strongman involved in an attack on an Enforcement Directorate team and accused of terrorising people) to be hanged to death. There was no law and order here as anarchy is the order of the day. People are still in fear and terror,” he said.
The Nandigram MLA claimed that some villagers were being threatened by outsiders at night. A woman described how her child was thrown away by miscreants, he added.
“I advised them to stay united. I asked them to play conch shell to alert other villagers when such miscreants come,” he said.
While granting permission to Adhikari to visit Sandeshkhali, the High Court on Monday had directed the BJP leader not to give any provocative speech or create any law and order situation in the restive area. The state government had moved an appeal before the division bench challenging Monday’s order.
Reacting to Adhikari’s visit, the TMC dubbed it as an attempt to vitiate the atmosphere.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “Yes, there have been a few complaints in the area. And both the administration and the party are trying to address those. But the BJP is trying to communalise the issue and vitiate the atmosphere. The BJP is spreading canards against the state government.”
CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, who also visited Sandeshkhali on Tuesday, said, “It’s a complete terror raj of local TMC leaders here. In my 55 years of political career, I never came across allegations of local political leaders calling women to party office at night. This is unacceptable and condemnable.”
“When I reached Dhamakhali in the morning, I saw police barricades which reminded me of Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras incident and how the Yogi Adityanath-led government barricaded us. What Yogi Adityanath did in Hathras, the TMC government is doing at Sandeshkhali,” Karat alleged.
She claimed to have talked to several women who her how they were assaulted and molested for years. The women said that without getting the matter investigated, the Chief Minister is expressing solidarity with criminals, she added.
— With PTI inputs