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Sandeshkhali a local incident, state government has acted: Mamata Banerjee
The BJP has fielded Rekha Patra from Basirhat, a resident of Sandeshkhali who first raised the voice of atrocities against women
Kolkata: The crimes that took place at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district were local incidents, and the state government has acted by arresting the accused persons, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday during a campaign rally at Alipurduar in North Bengal.
In North Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrested seven of the eight local Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and 30 of the 54 assembly seats in 2021 from the ruling party.
“At Sandeshkhali, some incidents took place at a local level. Police have arrested all the accused. The land over which there were problems has been returned by us (to the people). Nobody died in Sandeshkhali. It is not Nandigram or Singur,” the West Bengal chief minister said a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about alleged sexual assaults on women in Sandeshkhali while addressing voters in north Cooch Behar.
Modi had targeted Banerjee saying that the entire country saw how the Trinamool Congress-led government threw its weight to save the culprits of the Sandeshkhali incident.
“Only BJP can stop atrocities against women. The nation has seen how the TMC government used its full power to shield the guilty at Sandehskhali. BJP has vowed to punish them. They will spend the rest of their lives in prison. So, it is necessary to vote for the Lotus symbol,” Modi said on Thursday in Cooch Behar while campaigning for the BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP has fielded Rekha Patra from Basirhat, a resident of Sandeshkhali who first raised the voice of atrocities against women.
Sandeshkhali assembly segment is a part of the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency. The TMC has fielded Haji Nurul Islam, who won the Lok Sabha seat in 2009.
Sandeshkhali was on the boil since February this year after farmers alleged that TMC leaders grabbed a few thousand acres of their land to run saltwater fisheries. Meanehile, several women had accused TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his associates of sexually abusing them on multiple occasions.
Following the incident, Shahjahan was suspended from the party. He was arrested by the West Bengal police on February 29 two months after he remained absconding. He is currently in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate.
Countering Modi’s remarks on crimes against women at Sandeshkhali, Banerjee cited other major cases that have involved members of Modi’s BJP such as the Hathras incident in Uttar Pradesh and wrestler Sakshi Malik’s allegation of rape against former Wrestling Federation of India president and cabinet minister Brij Bhusan Sharan Singh.
“Suddenly you have become pious. What have you got to say on the gang rape of Bilkis Bano? How was a woman raped and set on fire at Hathras? Why did Sakshi Malik return her Padma Shri award? If I can arrest Shahjahan why can’t your government arrest your minister? How many times have Narendra Modi visited Hathras?” Banerjee said.
The chief minister also focused on corruption to counter similar charges Modi raised a day before.
“Is Lalit Modi not corrupt? Is Nirav Modi not corrupt? Are your leaders not corrupt? One becomes immune when he is in the BJP. Courts won’t touch him,” Banerjee said.
Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi are among those businessmen who left India over the past few years after being declared loan defaulters by banks.
Also Read: ‘Even if 1% is true…’: Calcutta HC pulls up West Bengal govt on Sandeshkhali violence
BJP Rajya Sabha member Samik Bhattacharya said that Banerjee cannot shield those who tormented women at Sandeshkhali for years.
“Also, her claims of returning land to the farmers are not correct. Not all the land has been returned. And the ones returned have lost their character because the soil has turned into salt pits. These are unfit for farming,” he claimed.
Banerjee further targeted former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay who resigned recently, three years before retirement, to contest as BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Tamluk in East Midnapore.
As a judge, Gangopadhyay ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe several cases filed against TMC leaders, including the bribe-for-job scam, Banerjee alleged, adding that he cancelled the appointments of a few hundred school employees who paid bribes after failing selection tests.
“You took away jobs from so many people. Now people will make you jobless,” Banerjee said.
The former judge shot back saying, “The chief minister is hiding the truth. She appointed people who were unfit to get those jobs. Hence, their appointments were cancelled and those who were eligible were appointed in their place,” said Gangopadhyay.
