E-Paper
‘Fabricated’: Delhi police reject claim of assault on Bengali woman after CM Mamata Banerjee shares video
The Delhi Police said the woman in the video admitted her Malda-based relative, a political worker, had asked her to make the false video.
The Delhi police on Monday rejected West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that a Bengali-speaking woman and her child were assaulted by personnel of the Delhi Police.
DCP East Delhi Abhishek Dhania said that, following a detailed investigation, it was found that the video shared by the chief minister on social media platform X is “fabricated and baseless”.
Police said they investigated the woman shown in the video, who had alleged that “four policemen came to their house, took them away to a secluded place and demanded 25,000".
She admitted that her relative, a political worker based in Malda district, had asked her to make the video, which was then shared with him and subsequently circulated to defame the Delhi police, the officer said.
“Based on technical and local intelligence, as well as CCTV camera footage, we have gathered various evidence. Based on that evidence, we found out that the whole story told by this lady is baseless,” Abhishek Dhania told news agency ANI.
Mamata Banerjee had on Sunday posted the video on X claiming that a Bengali-speaking migrant family had been assaulted by Delhi Police, calling the act “Atrocious!! Terrible!!”. The video shows a child with scratches on his ear, followed by visuals of a woman making allegations of assault.
DCP Dhania said, “During the interrogation, she mentioned that her relative, who lives in the Malda district of West Bengal, is a political worker, and on his request, she made this baseless video and shared it with him. Later, he circulated the video in the local media... After a thorough investigation and inquiry, we have concluded that the entire video is baseless and fabricated... Further investigation is still going on.”
Also read | ‘Did you ask Maldives president his religion before hugging’: Mamata Banerjee's jibe at PM Modi
BJP hits out at Mamata Banerjee: ‘Shame on her’
BJP leader Amit Malviya slammed Mamata Banerjee over her post, calling it an attempt to spread misinformation. Sharing details from the Delhi police’s investigation, Malviya said it is a “shame on evil Mamata Banerjee for spreading fake news.”
“The enquiry reveals that the alleged incident of abduction, extortion, and police misconduct, as claimed in the social media post, is fabricated and baseless. No such incident, as described in the viral video and tweet, has occurred,” he added.
In her post, Banerjee wrote, “Atrocious!! Terrible!! See how Delhi police brutally beat up a kid and his mother, members of a migrant family from Malda's Chanchal. See how even a child is not spared from the cruelty of violence in the regime of linguistic terror unleashed by the BJP in the country against the Bengalis! Where are they taking our country now?”
