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85-year-old woman dies a month after ‘assault’ in Bengal; BJP targets TMC
The alleged victim’s death certificate has been signed by the BJP’s North Dumdum assembly candidate Dr Archana Majumdar
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday, three days before the second phase of polling in Bengal, after Shova Majumdar, an octogenarian woman and resident of the Nimta area of North 24 Parganas district, died at her home.
Majumdar was allegedly assaulted by some men, who the BJP claimed were TMC supporters, on February 27. She was admitted to the hospital and released three days ago.
Bengal BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu told Hindustan Times that the death certificate was signed by Archana Majumdar, a doctor, who is also a BJP leader and a candidate in the ongoing election from the North Dumdum assembly constituency in the same district.
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“The death certificate mentions marks of injury. Dr Majumdar and I went to the Nimta police station and demanded that a murder case be registered immediately. We will also write to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to bring the matter to the attention of Vivek Dubey, the special police observer of the ECI,” Basu said.
Last month, the BJP accused the TMC of attacking the woman because her son is a party supporter. Photos of her swollen face went viral on social media.
On Monday, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president JP Nadda and other top leaders took to social media to corner chief minister Mamata Banerjee whose main election slogan is “Bengal wants its daughter”. BJP workers staged an agitation outside Nimta police station, demanding the arrest of the accused men.
Banerjee will face her former cabinet colleague Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s most high-profile candidate in the Bengal polls, at Nandigram in East Midnapore district where election will be held on April 1. Banerjee was holding roadshows and rallies in Nandigram when the BJP started the agitation after Majumdar’s death.
“Anguished over the demise of Bengal’s daughter Shova Majumdar ji, who was brutally beaten by TMC goons. The pain & wounds of her family will haunt Mamata didi for long. Bengal will fight for a violence-free tomorrow, Bengal will fight for a safer state for our sisters & mothers,” tweeted Shah.
“Every death is tragic. However, the ‘tourist gang’s’ attempt to malign #Bengal and politicise the death of an 85 year-old woman is despicable. Death has nothing to do with politics. BJP leader giving gyan about #WomenSafety. What is their own track record? Take a look,” tweeted TMC’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, attaching some data on crime against women in BJP-ruled states.
TMC Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said, “TMC workers were not involved in the alleged attack in any way.”
Officers of the Nimta police station refused to comment. “If the woman died of injuries, as alleged, then a post-mortem examination has to be conducted to start a murder case. We are consulting higher authorities,” said a senior district police official who did not want to be quoted.
In February, the BJP said the woman was the mother of Gopal Majumdar, a local party worker, who was attacked by TMC supporters.
In a video on social media, the woman could be heard telling a news channel that TMC supporters barged into her house and assaulted her and her son. She said that she could not identify the assaulters. “They told me not to disclose who did this,” the woman said.
The TMC leadership alleged that the BJP was spreading fake news to gain political mileage before the assembly elections. Education minister Partha Chatterjee said in a tweet that the woman was the victim of a family feud. He also tweeted a video in which a man who identified himself as Gobinda Majumdar, the grandson of the woman, was seen talking to another news channel.
“There is no truth in this. My grandmother has been bedridden for three years. When I heard about the alleged assault I went to her house. I asked her how can the TMC be dragged into an internal feud of the BJP. Nobody assaulted my grandmother,” he said.
HT could not independently verify the veracity of both videos.
