The ruling party’s allegations come days after a video of BJP’s Sandeshkhali Block-2 president Gangadhar Kayal purpotedly claiming that the women in the riverine region filed sexual harassment complaints at the behest of the Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, surfaced. On Thursday, the TMC shared another video where a woman claiming to be from Sandeshkhali alleged that two BJP women leaders, Mampi Das and Piyali Das, had forced her to “sign on a blank paper” which was then was converted into a rape complaint.
Addressing a press conference in Kolkata, state Women and Child Development minister and senior TMC leader Shashi Panja said, “When the so-called Sandeskhali issue happened, the BJP’s scripted drama came to light. The commissions have allied with the BJP and have become extensions of the party, when they are supposed to be apolitical. Yesterday, a woman was claiming that a delegation of NCW had visited Sandeshkhali and forced her to register complaints of rape and abuse. They were coaxed and coerced into registering complaints.”
Panja said the party had already written to the EC seeking action against Adhikari for “fabricating rape allegations” against TMC leaders.
“Our next complaint will be against the ecosystem that the BJP has created by sending their teams to sensationalise the Sandeshkhali issue…A woman from Sandeshkali has even named Rekha Sharma. She claimed that someone by the name of Rekha Sharma had come from Delhi to mislead the women. The TMC will file a complaint with the EC against Rekha Sharma,” said Panja.
The state minister hit out at the NCW and questioned why it hadn’t considered visiting Manipur. “They (NCW) were blind to the plight of the women of Manipur. They have no comments on the women whose modesty has been outraged by Prajwal Revanna in his 2000+ compromised videos,” Panja added.
“One woman from Sandeshkhali alleged that members of women’s commission from Delhi came and forced them to sign blank papers and later they found that false rape cases were registered without their knowledge. We will approach the EC against Sharma for being one of the major conspirators in Sandeshkhali,” said a senior TMC leader.
Meanwhile, the NCW wrote to the EC alleging that TMC workers were “instilling fear among the women in Sandeshkhali”.
In its letter, NCW wrote: “It has come to the notice of the commission that the women of Sandeshkhali are being compelled to withdraw their complaints by TMC workers as they are from the ruling party in West Bengal during the General Elections 2024.”
“The TMC is instilling fear among the women in Sandeshkhali to suppress the victims from coming forward with their complaints, potentially impacting the fairness of the election process in the area,” the commission stated in the letter.”
The panel also urged the EC to look into the issue on priority.
Earlier this year, the NCW had visited Sandeshkhali, which had hit the headlines in February after massive protests against TMC strongman Shahjahan Shiekh and his aides who were accused of land grab and sexual harassment. The rights body had then recommended the imposition of President’s Rule in Bengal.
Meanwhile, TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee hit out at the BJP for allegedly fabricating rape allegations in Sandeshkhali. “After Godhra-Pulwama, we saw Sandeskhali. We had only heard about Godhara and Pulwama, but this we saw from our eyes. They inflated the balloon, but it burst,” said Banerjee.
Banerjee questioned whether the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the allegations of sexual harassment in Sandeshkhali, will look into purported videos where women have claimed that they were made to sign on blank papers.
“The person (Rekha Patra), who ahs been made a candidate from the Basirhat LS seat by the Prime Minister, in a video says that those who went to meet the President were not the victims (of sexual harassment) in the first place.
It’s their candidate who had questioned the identities of the women who were taken to Delhi by the BJP to meet President Droupadi Murmu,” said Banerjee. Sandeshkhali is a part of the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency.
Hitting out at Banerjee, BJP MP Samik Bhattacharya said TMC had “stooped to a new low in politics”.
“The TMC has stooped to a new low in politics. The party is now making statements that compromise national security. Hearing his (Abhishek Banerjee’s) statement, only people in Pakistan will celebrate and not someone from Sandeshkhali or Bengal. He is talking so much about Sandeshkhali but couldn’t visit the spot even once. Let him go to Sandeshkhali and tell people there that Shahjahan Sheikh was reborn as Swami Vivekananda’s. TMC knows Sandeshkhali will cost it in the election and hence they are reacting like this with their cooked up stories,” said Bhattacharya.
BJP Sandeshkhali Block-2 president Gangadhar Kayal on Friday moved the Calcutta High Court alleging that technology-aided videos mimicking his voice were being circulated in a bid to defame him, and prayed for security be provided to him by central agencies.
The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal had earlier this week shared a video of an alleged sting operation featuring Kayal.
In the purported video, a man resembling Koyal was seen claiming that allegations of sexual abuse in Sandeshkhali were “staged”.
Claiming that such purported videos were creating tension in Sandeshkhali and that he was apprehending a threat to his safety, Koyal sought an order by the court for granting him central force security.
The court of Justice Jay Sengupta is likely to hear the petition on Monday, a lawyer representing him, said.
Stating that he has already met CBI officials over the alleged use of his fake voice, Koyal also sought for a direction to the central agency to probe the matter.
The CBI is investigating alleged sexual atrocities and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas on an order of the Calcutta High Court.
On Thursday, Basirhat police registered a case against Leader of Opposition in state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, Kayal and BJP’s candidate from Basirhat Lok Sabha seat and for allegedly “conspiring to fake cases of crime against women” in Sandeshkhali. The case was registered after a complaint by a TMC worker, who also named local woman leader from Sandeshkhali Piyali Das. Police said they have summoned Koyal and Das for questioning in connection with the case.
— With PTI inputs