The Trinamool Congress on Thursday lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party was “peddling a false narrative regarding Sandeshkhali”. It demanded that the poll panel order the police to initiate criminal proceedings against BJP leaders including Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and people associated with him “of orchestrating the conspiracy, including paying bribes to the women of Sandeshkhali to falsely raise complaints and attempting to influence Central investigating agencies and other Constitutional authorities.”
The development comes at a time when the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, has raked up the Sandeshkhali issue amid the Lok Sabha polls to target the ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Government in Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress accused the BJP leaders of “committing serious fraud upon society by terrorizing the general public with a false narrative of hostility being committed against women of Sandeshkhali, including rape.”
It alleged that the BJP leaders were seen to be involved in committing serious fraud upon the society by engaging in deep-rooted conspiracy to orchestrate false rape complaints against its Sandeshkhali leaders Sheikh Shahjahan, Shibu Hazra and Uttam Sardar.
“Such illegal acts have caused terror in the minds of the general public during the ensuing general elections. The false narrative of Sandeshkhali incident spread by BJP intended solely to malign the image of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), and thereby engaging in corrupt practices and attempting to manipulate the political landscape of West Bengal through unethical means”, the party said in a five-page complaint letter.
In support of its allegation, the Trinamool Congress cited the YouTube link of a “sting video”, in which a local BJP leader is purportedly confessing on camera that the rape accusations in Sandeshkhali were concocted at the behest of Suvendu Adhikari who “had also planted firearms in Sandeshkhali which were later recovered by the CBI and the NSG.”
The party also demanded the arrest and interrogation of Gangadhar Koyal and Shanti Dolui, the BJP leaders seen in the video.
It also asked the Election Commission to issue directions restraining the BJP and its leaders from speaking on the Sandeshkhali incident, “as the evidence showed that they were spreading orchestrated/manufactured and unverified allegations against the Trinamool Congress and its leaders”.
“The testimony of Smt. Jaba Rani Singha, one of the complainants in the falsely alleged rape case against Shahjahan, Uttam Sardar and Shibu Hazra, provides further evidence of coercion and manipulation by the BJP members. She admitted to being misled and coerced into signing a false statement without fully understanding its implications. Her testimony exposes the deceitful tactics employed by BJP members to fabricate evidence against innocent individuals. Further Gangadhar Koyal said that all the women who had filed complaints were paid by the party (BJP) around Rs. 3,000 per woman, in instalments, the first instalment was of Rs. 2,000.
All the women were paid, those who have made false rape complaints and women whose faces have been shown on TV news channels,” the Trinamool Congress said in its complaint.
Meanwhile in Sandeshkhali, a woman and her mother-in-law withdrew their rape complaint against Trinamool Congress leaders, alleging that they were made to sign “blank papers” at the behest of the National Commission for Women.
Addressing the media, the woman narrated how she and her mother-in-law were forced to file fake rape complaints without even knowing the contents of the complaint at the behest of “Delhi’s Mahila Commission”. The women lodged a complaint with the police, citing threats and ostracism because of their decision to withdraw the complaint against the Trinamool Congress leaders.
On Wednesday, the woman and her mother-in-law recorded their statements before the magistrate. “We don’t want to be associated with any false complaints… nobody is even talking to us in our neighbourhood. When I asked them to rescind the false complaint, I was chased away,” the woman alleged.
The woman claimed that one day two women – Piyali Das and Mampi Das- came to their home and took her mother-in-law to the police station. She alleged that after she went to the police station, the gate was locked from inside. “My mother-in-law only said that she had yet to get her dues for cooking as part of the 100 days’ job scheme. She was then made to sign a white paper. We did not know about the cases,” the woman said.
The woman said she later came to know that she and her mother-in-law were on the list of women who alleged rape by local Trinamool leaders. “Nothing like that happened to us. It was scripted false allegations. We don’t want to be associated with any false complaints,” she maintained.
On Thursday afternoon, policemen from the local Nazat police station visited the house of Mampi Das, and finding her absent, pasted a notice asking her to visit the police station to answer queries of the police.