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Bengal top cop denies reports of woman stripped outside polling booth during panchayat elections
A gram sabha candidate on Thursday alleged that she was physically molested by TMC workers during the West Bengal rural polls on July 8.
The West Bengal Police on Friday rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party's allegation of its gram sabha poll candidate being sexually assaulted by Trinamool Congress workers in Howrah's Panchla during the recently concluded panchayat election.
West Bengal director general of police (DGP) M Malviya said that no evidence was found of the occurrence of the incident, reported news agency ANI.
While addressing a press conference on Friday, the Bengal top cop said, “On 13 July, SP Howrah Rural received a complaint by email from BJP that on July 8, a woman was forcibly pulled out from a polling booth in Howrah's Panchla and her clothes were torn. On this complaint, the police were ordered to register an FIR and conduct further investigation.”
"During the probe, the police team found no evidence of the occurrence of the incident. Police and Central Forces were present in the polling booth," he added.
A gram sabha candidate on Thursday alleged that she was physically assaulted by TMC workers during the polling in Dakshin Panchla under the Panchla police station in Howrah district. She further alleged that the goons stripped her naked and paraded her around the village on the polling day, ANI had reported.
After the incident, an FIR was filed by the victim at the Panchla police station.
"On the polling day (8 July 2023), while the voting was ongoing, the TMC candidate of the same Gram Sabha named Hemanta Roy, and few other TMC supported anti-social elements named Alfi Sk., Sukamal Panja, Ranabir Panja, Sanju Das, Noor Alam and about 40-50 other miscreants physically assaulted me at the polling station. They hit me on my chest, and head with sticks and pushed me out of the polling booth," read the FIR.
BJP MP Locket Chatterjee broke down during a press conference, citing a number of cases of crime against women, including alleged disrobing, during and after the West Bengal panchayat polls. "The situation in Manipur also prevails in West Bengal," she said.
The elections for 63,229 Gram Panchayat seats along with 9,730 Panchayat Samitis and 928 Zilla Parishads in West Bengal took place on July 8 marred with widespread violence, looting of ballots papers and rigging. Around 5.67 crore voters participated and decided the fate of 2.06 lakh candidates in the state.
There were also reports of booth capturing, damaging of ballot boxes, clashes between political parties and assault of presiding officers from several districts in the state.
The ruling TMC won 44,105 Gram Panchayat seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged 9,990 seats. Congress secured 2,680 seats, while Communist Party of India (Marxist) won 3,180 seats, according to the State Election Commission (SEC).
