BJP fact-finding team visits law college, runs into TMC questions on Malviya’s Kartik praise
Times of India | 1 July 2025
Kolkata: A BJP fact-finding team arrived in Kolkata on Monday and visited the law college where a first-year student was allegedly gang-raped last week. However, they ran into a volley of questions from Trinamool over BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya's comments on the allegations against Kartik Maharaj. On Monday, Malviya hailed Kartik Maharaj as a "revered saint" and claimed the woman who had accused him of rape acted "entirely as instructed by ‘Didi's' people, right from the top". "This wasn't about justice. It was a scripted political hit-job — a disgraceful attack on a Hindu saint and an institution that commands deep respect. Mamata Banerjee's regressive, anti-Hindu politics knows no bounds. Shame on her. The curse of Dharma and Hindu devotees will not spare her," he wrote on X. At a press conference, Shashi Panja, minister of women and child development and social welfare, responded: "BJP's fact-finding team is nothing but a thinly veiled political stunt. If BJP truly cared about women, they'd stop the media circus and start by condemning their own Padma Shri-awarded ally, Kartik Maharaj, who stands accused of repeated rape, blackmail, and forced abortion. But expecting moral clarity from a party that protects predators is wishful thinking. "
Criticising BJP for assaulting a woman cop at a protest rally in Esplanade earlier in the day, TMC spokesperson Debangshu Bhattacharya added: "Their fact-finding team has landed in Bengal not to support the victim, but to hijack a tragedy for media attention. Let's not forget this is the same BJP that remains silent on their rapist ally Kartik Maharaj and runs states that have become breeding grounds for sexual violence. When you can't condemn your own predators, you have no moral right to lecture Bengal on ‘nari suraksha'. "Referring to the death of a Class 9 student of a prominent school in Agartala last week, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said: "The fact-finding team is a group of political tourists. They don't go when horrific incidents happen in BJP-governed states. Biplab Deb is the former CM of Tripura, and while he was here, a heinous crime occurred in Agartala. I appeal to them, since you are here in Bengal, also speak to the woman who was raped by Kartik Maharaj on the pretext of offering her a job. "BJP sent a four-member fact-finding team, comprising former Union ministers Satyapal Singh and Meenakshi Lekhi, Rajya Sabha MP Manan Mishra and Lok Sabha member Biplab Deb to look into the gang rape and submit a report to the party's national president, JP Nadda. The team faced resistance while entering the college and later met Kolkata Police commissioner Manoj Verma. "How could a person, who was arrested four times, get admission to a law college? There must have been powerful people who facilitated the admission. The recruitments in the college are entirely political. As a result, a daughter has been violated in a state governed by a woman CM," said Singh. The team had also sought an appointment with chief secretary Manoj Pant. "If the administration does not want to meet us, that is a clear indication that there is no respect for a democratic process," said Lekhi. Trinamool Congress said in a statement: "Today, when confronted about the Bilkis Bano and Kathua rape cases, BJP karyakartas assaulted female students, molested them, and tore off their clothes. Is this their definition of seeking justice? By beating up women in uniform and stripping college girls of their dignity? It's a ritual of perversion that repeats wherever BJP sets foot. Is BJP's ‘fact-finding' team taking notes? Or are they too busy choreographing photo-ops to see the blood and bruises? BJP has no moral right to speak about women's safety. "