North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) [India], May 16 (ANI): BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Basirhat, Rekha Patra on Thursday said women of Sandeshkhali who protested are being threatened with rape and murder by TMC goons.
“The women of Sandeshkhali who protested are being threatened that they will be killed and raped. These TMC goons are perpetrating violence everywhere in the village of Sandeshkhali. Why are they not being arrested? Our West Bengal police are colluding with TMC goons and doing all this,” she told ANI.
“Yesterday, one of our sisters was taken away from her house by tying her hands. She was raped and they tried to kill her…BJP is trying to support us and therefore made me the candidate from Basirhat Lok Sabha seat. But TMC is doing wrong to us,” she said.
Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district started hitting the headlines in February this year when villagers, mostly women, came out on the streets against the ruling TMC and Shahjahan, accusing the strongman and his aides of perpetrating gross excesses and atrocities on them while also gobbling up their land. Multiple women on the island accused Shajahan 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 the opposition.
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. (ANI)
, https://www.aninews.in/news/national/politics/tmc-goons-threatening-sandeshkhali-women-who-protested-bjps-basirhat-candidate-rekha-patra20240516185617
