The BJP on Saturday shared a video purporting to show an assault on two women in Malda during which their clothes were also torn, and alleged that Mamata Banerjee had failed as chief minister.
The video, first shared by BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya, was picked up by several Bengal BJP leaders to target the state government and Mamata at a time the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have come under increasing attack for the Manipur violence that has been raging for close to three months and has claimed over 160 lives.
Sharing the video, Malviya tweeted: “The horror continues in West Bengal. Two Tribal women were stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly, while police remained a mute spectator... in Malda. The horrific incident took place on the morning of 19th July. The women belonged to socially marginalised community and had a frenzied mob baying for her blood…. It had all the making of a tragedy that should have ‘broken’ Mamata Banerjee’s heart and she, instead of merely outraging, could have acted, since she is also the Home Minister of Bengal…
“But she chose to do nothing. Neither did she condemn the barbarity nor did she express pain and anguish because it would have exposed her own failing as a Chief Minister....”
Sources in the Malda administration said the two women had gone to a rural market in Pakuahat when some locals accused them of stealing cellphones and assaulted them. The duo were slapped, punched and hit with slippers and their clothes torn. A woman civic volunteer tried to prevent the mob but failed.
The police rescued the women and took the duo to hospital. Later, they were shifted to a correctional home.
The BJP, which has been trying to counter the onslaught over Manipur by drawing attention to crimes against women in Opposition-ruled states, targeted Mamata, who has unequivocally condemned the violence in the northeastern state and mooted a visit by chief ministers from the new alliance INDIA.
“If Mamata Banerjee feels that her visit to Manipur would help in mitigating violence in the state, we welcome it. If required, I will go with her. But she cannot undermine what has happened in Malda. The manner in which we are thinking of Manipur, Mamata Banerjee should also think about the women of Bengal,” said state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar after the Malda video went viral.
On Friday, the BJP had highlighted another incident in Howrah’s Panchla in which a woman panchayat election candidate of the party was assaulted and stripped near a polling booth.
Senior police officers, including Bengal police chief Manoj Malviya, have said they have not found any evidence to substantiate the allegation.
On Saturday, Khagen Murmu, the BJP MP of Malda North, visited the office of the district police chief with party supporters, and demonstrated there against the attack on the two women.
“It is a shameful incident. The police didn’t take any action against the attackers and instead, the victims were arrested,” said Murmu.
The BJP campaign, which also saw Union ministers Smriti Irani and Anurag Thakur alleging atrocities on women in Bengal, prompted Trinamul to claim that the rival party was trying to divert people’s attention from the heinous crimes in Manipur, including the parading of two women naked.
In an official release, Trinamul said: “For the past nine years, the BJP has used whataboutery to shirk off responsibilities and deflect attention from important issues. But, the BJP’s favourite trope of evading accountability by pointing fingers elsewhere will no longer work. INDIA will not allow the cries from Manipur to drown in the clamour of fake news propagated by the BJP,” said the release.
In Malda, district police chief Pradeep Kumar Yadav visited Bamangola police station and the Pakuahat police outpost on Saturday.
“People had filed complaints against the two women, accusing them of theft. That is why they were arrested. Also, as some people had beaten them, video footage has been analysed and five persons, including three women, have been arrested,” he said.
