As election heat mounts in south Bengal, the Trinamool Congress is hitting back on Sandeshkhali with a vengeance.
The party has shared a second “sting video” to bolster its claim that the Sandeshkhali rape and abuse allegations were a BJP conspiracy against Bengal’s ruling party in election season, this time citing numbers.
While in the first video, released a week ago, a local BJP leader seems to claim that women were paid off to allege rape and sexual abuse, the latest purportedly has him putting a figure — 72 — on how many women were allegedly paid while naming nearly 50 of them.
The latest video also prompted Trinamool to allege the BJP was using liquor and firearms in Sandeshkhali to “keep the issue alive”.
This newspaper has not been able to independently establish the authenticity
of either video, both of which seem to feature Sandeshkhali II mandal president
Gangadhar Kayal of the BJP.
In the first, Kayal appeared to say the women complaining of rape and sexual abuse against local Trinamool strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his associates had been paid Rs 2,000 each at the behest of state leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.
In the second, he purportedly says that 72 women were paid Rs 2,000 each in Sandeshkhali for participating in the protests.
Trinamool used the latest video to try and embarrass the BJP on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Bengal to address four rallies.
Modi spoke much less on Sandeshkhali on Sunday compared with his last 12 poll rallies in the state. But, in an apparent allusion to the videos, he suggested that Trinamool had started a new “game” over Sandeshkhali.
BJP workers sit on a demonstration in front of Sandeshkhali police station on Sunday Sourced by The Telegraph
Kayal has already told the CBI that the first video is a morphed one. He has taken the matter up with Calcutta High Court, seeking central force security for himself.
The Telegraph tried to contact Kayal for his comments on the latest video but his number was “not reachable”.
As with the first video, the state BJP said the latest too was a fake one, made using AI.
The 46-minute, 7-second video had begun circulating on social media from late Saturday night before Trinamool shared it from its official handle on Sunday.
It appears to show Kayal revealing details -- names, phone numbers and addresses -- of nearly 50 of the women allegedly paid by the BJP to stage the protests.
“Seventy-two women were paid Rs 2,000 one time.... Santanu (possibly a local BJP leader) had said they would be given Rs 5,000 each,” Kayal purportedly tells a man who cannot be seen but whom he seems to consider a visiting BJP functionary from elsewhere.
“If we can provide financial support to around 50 women, our movement will be intensified, and the organisation will be strengthened. I can WhatsApp you a list of those women,” Kayal appears to add.
To a query from the other man, Kayal seems to suggest that some women from Sandeshkhali’s neighbourhood --- “Jeliakhali, Bermajur 1 and 2” – too were paid to protest, and the sum was Rs 5,000 each.
Asked by the other man how much money he needed to buy liquor, Kayal purportedly provides an estimate of about Rs 2.5 lakh while demanding 50 pistols to “keep the issue alive for the election”.
“I suppose we’ll need Rs 5,000 for each booth.... We need more (liquor) in the tribal pockets. There are 50 booths in my mandal,” Kayal appears to say.
Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said: “The new sting video gives us details of how many women were paid and exposes how BJP leaders are using money, liquor and arms to gain political advantage by defaming the women of Sandeshkhali.”
The state BJP’s chief spokesperson, Shamik Bhattacharya, said: “Those videos are not only fake but also expose the political bankruptcy of the TMC.”
Another video surfaced on Sunday evening in which a woman, whose face cannot be seen, appears to say she was made to sign on a blank sheet of paper by a local BJP functionary.
A few days ago, a video appeared to show Rekha Patra --- BJP candidate for Basirhat and the face of the February Sandeshkhali protests --- and aide Mampi Das questioning the credentials of some of the alleged victims herded by a local BJP leader to meet President Droupadi Murmu in Delhi.
Amid the BJP-Trinamool tussle over the latest video, Sandeshkhali erupted again with about 200 women led by Patra demonstrating near the local police station and later outside the house of Trinamool leader Dilip Mallik.
The women thrashed a Trinamool youth worker, accusing him of having a hand in the manufacture and circulation of the “doctored” videos. They allegedly pushed and shoved local Trinamool MLA Sukumar Mahata, too.
Patra and the other women had begun their protest in front of the police station early in the afternoon, demanding the unconditional release of a BJP worker whom they accused the police of arresting on “false” charges of robbery.
“Rekha Patra provoked the women BJP supporters to organise the show in front of cameras. It’s part of the BJP’s dirty politics. They should ask their leader Gangadhar Kayal whether the viral video is fake or genuine,” Mahata said.
Bhattacharya said: “The party does not endorse thrashing someone. But what happened in Sandeshkhali today was the result of the women’s anger against Trinamool for its ploy to defame their movement, and the torture they had faced in the past few years.”