The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head, Amit Malviya, claimed on Saturday that two tribal women were stripped naked and tortured a few days ago in West Bengal ‘while police remained a mute spectator’. However the West Bengal police rubbished the claims as ‘misleading’.
In a Twitter post, Malviya, who is also one of the party’s incharges for the state, said the incident took place in Malda on July 19. He also posted a purported video with blurred images.
Malviya tweeted, “The horror continues in West Bengal. Two tribal women were stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly, while police remained a mute spectator in Pakua Hat area of Bamangola Police Station, Malda.”
“It had all the making of a tragedy that should have ‘broken’ Mamata Banerjee’s heart and she, instead of merely outraging, could have acted, since she is also the home minister of Bengal (sic),” he tweeted, attacking the chief minister.
With the Opposition parties targeting the BJP over the incident of two women being paraded naked in violence-hit Manipur, where the saffron party is in power, BJP has started highlighting ‘similar cases of atrocities against women’ in states ruled by its rivals.
Malviya said that Banerjee chose to do nothing in the case. “Neither did she condemn the barbarity nor did she express pain and anguish because it would have exposed her own failing as a chief minister,” he said.
“But a day after, she shed copious tears and screamed blue murder because it was politically expedient,” Malviya said, in response to West Bengal CM’s attack on the BJP over the Manipur incident.
However, The West Bengal police rejected the claims, saying the news was totally ‘misleading’.
West Bengal’s director general of police (DGP) Manoj Malviya said on Friday said that no evidence any woman being stripped in Howrah district was found.
“A complaint was received by e-mail on July 13. The superintendent of police (Howrah-rural) immediately ordered an investigation and lodge an FIR,” the DGP said.
“On July 14, an FIR was filed under relevant sections of the IPC as per the woman’s complaint but no evidence could be found supporting the allegations in the complaint,” he added.
Despite repeated summons, neither the complainant nor her husband turned up to record their statements under Section 164 of the CrPC, he said.
“There was no response from the complainant or her family,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ruling TMC questioned why the incident was being raised by the BJP just after the nationwide outrage over the Manipur incident, in which two women were paraded naked by a mob.
