In a political turnabout, women from Sandheskhali retract complaints against TMC leaders; NCW says they are being compelled to do so

Image Source: Mint

In a recent staggering development, two of the women from the Sandeshkhali region of Bengal have withdrawn their complaints of sexual harassment against officials from TMC, which has stirred up the political environment; this update comes right amid elections.

While addressing the issue, the women from the region asserted that they were coerced into signing a blank paper, upon which the BJP purportedly wrote falsified rape allegations to implicate TMC officials. Apparently, members of the National Commission for Women are also involved as they made them lodge these complaints; one of the residents from the region stated they merely wanted their overdue money from the 100-day scheme.

Trinamool Congress is now on the offensive and is denouncing their alleged acts of plotting against them by concocting lies against them. Sushmita Dev, TMC MP, said the BJP is now attempting to intimidate the women of Sandeshkhali who are defying their hoax. The party has filed a complaint with ECI (Election Commission of India) and against opposition leaders like Suvendu Adhikari.

Moreover, one of the leaders from the saffron party named Gangadhar Koyal, who is a supposed mandal president from the precinct, went viral as one of his videos made rounds on the internet in which he implied that all the purported victims of the case never faced harassment and assault and the whole debacle was instead an elaborate farce to vilify the opposition.

Photo Credits: Indian Express Bangla

The allegations were first leveled in February this year against the political mogul Shahjahan Sheikh from the region, who is currently imprisoned in another case of ration scam. The issue came to light when many women from the village raised their voices against the leader’s heinous crimes and further accused him of land confiscation, appropriating them for fisheries. 

In addition to that, they also took to the streets to celebrate his incarceration when he was indicted. The BJP had also tried to give the issue a communal spin; Minister of Child & development Smiriti Irani had claimed that Mamta Banerjee’s government was purposefully letting Hindu married women get assaulted, while completely brushing off the fact that the two other accused and aides in the case, Ajit Maity & Uttam Sardar are Hindus themselves.

Photo Credits: Telegraph India

Amidst all this upheaval, the National Commission for Women has asserted that the victims are getting forced to pull back their complaints as officials from TMC are mounting pressure on them. 

Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee rapped BJP and said that they are plotting against them in a bid to defile their image and further called it a big conspiracy. He also made appalling allegations in opposition of changing the victims while they were en route to Delhi to meet President Droupadi Murmu; although this was allegedly first raised by Rekha Patra, a candidate from Basirhat seat, Banerjee reinforced her claims and said that the group of women who met with the President may not have been the real victims.

Party’s spokesperson Shashi Panja asserted that the Commission’s Chairperson has personal and political biases in the case and is the one who incited women to lodge false allegations of sexual assault.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women has refuted the claims of TMC and said that the victims of the crimes are getting pressured into dropping the charges. 

(NCW) Chairperson Rekha Sharma in a meeting with a delegation led by West Bengal BJP Vice President Madhuchanda Kar, in Kolkata.

Image Source: The Indian Express

In a letter to the Election Commission of India, NCW, in a post on X(formerly known as Twitter), said that women of the region are getting threatened and compelled to withdraw the complaints as “TMC workers are instilling fear among the women, potentially impacting the fairness of election process in the area” and implored the Commission to conduct an inquiry on the matter.