Woman cites Anubrata clip, claims threat

Bolpur: An East Burdwan woman on Monday claimed she was the person being threatened with arrest in a viral video purportedly showing Trinamul leader Anubrata Mondal.

Sangita Chakraborty, 37, has written to Union home minister Rajnath Singh and the national human rights panel alleging threat to her life and seeking "security and justice".

Referring to the video circulating since Sunday, Chakraborty said it was her that Mondal - the Birbhum Trinamul chief and the party's enfant terrible - allegedly wants arrested in a " ganja (marijuana)" case.

"I am the woman he (Mondal) was referring to. I have written to Rajnath Singh and the National Human Rights Commission asking for security and justice. My life is at risk," said Chakraborty.

Mondal declined comment. Sources close to him claimed that the video was doctored.

"So many criminal things are said by (BJP state chief) Dilip Ghosh daily. What action is initiated against him? One (Ghosh) is a state president, the other (Mondal) is a district president," Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said on Monday.

"What Anubrata has said must be condemnable, but what about Ghosh's comments?" Chatterjee added.

Chakraborty claimed attacks on her on Mondal's "instructions" since December 2016 when she had written to him alleging graft by the Trinamul-run Bilwa gram panchayat in her area.

"On December 29, 2016, a group of (suspected) Trinamul men attacked and ransacked my home and my cloth shop. They thrashed me. All my four limbs were broken. Plates had to be inserted in them. I have become virtually handicapped and he (Mondal) is to blame," said Chakraborty.

Sources said Chakrabortyhad wanted to join Trinamul but was not allowed by the party's leadership in East Burdwan's Ausgram, which Mondal oversees as an observer.

Chakraborty denied "any political connection" with the BJP, although the party said she was a booth-level member.

In the video, purportedly taken from meeting on Sunday, Mondal is heard directing party workers to have a woman and a rebel in Ausgram "arrested on charges of possessing cannabis".

Chakraborty said she had nothing to do with cannabis.

BJP state general-secretary Sayantan Basu said the incident was an instance of how the party's leadership and cadre were being "victimised" by the ruling establishment.