BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Basirhat, Rekha Patra on Thursday claimed women of Sandeshkhali who protested are being threatened with rape and murder by the goons of the ruling party in West Bengal.
“These Trinamool Congress goons are perpetrating violence everywhere in the village of Sandeshkhali. Women who protested are being threatened that they will be killed and raped. Why the police is not arresting them? It is because they have teamed up with TMC goons to orchestrate violence,” she told the media.
“Yesterday, one of our sisters was abducted from her house by tying her hands. She was raped and they even tried to kill her…. Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to support us and therefore made me the candidate,” Patra added.
Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district started to make headlines since February this year when villagers, mostly women, came out on the streets against the ruling party and TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh, accusing them of atrocities on women and gobbling their land. Multiple women on the island accused Shahjahan and his aides of “land-grab and sexual assault” under coercion.
Later on May 4, a video of a sting operation surfaced, stirring up fresh controversy in Sandeshkhali. The video was broadcast by a local television channel.
In the alleged video, purportedly, a BJP Mandal (booth) president named Gangadhar Koyal is heard saying that Sandeshkhali women, who weren’t sexually assaulted, were projected as ‘rape’ victims at the behest of the Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
Claiming that Suvendu ‘helped’ him get this done, the person in the video said that the former told him that the TMC’s strongmen in the area wouldn’t be arrested unless he is falsely implicated in a ‘rape case.’ However, the news channel that broke the alleged sting operation did not check the veracity of the clip.
Shahjahan, the key Sandeshkhali accused, is currently behind bars in connection with the attack on a team of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) while it was in the process of raiding his residence in connection with the alleged ration scam.
BJP’s Rekha Patra will be contesting against Trinamool Congress’ Haji Nurul Islam for the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat. Basirhat will go to the polls in the last phase on June 1. The counting of votes will be held on June 4.
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