Kolkata: Three Sandeshkhali women have alleged that they were coerced by the Bharatiya Janata Party into signing on blank paper and did not in fact wish to report sexual harassment, reports say.
Some news outlets have reported that one of them have withdrawn their rape complaint against Trinamool Congress leaders.
The three women, who Bengali local media has named, are purportedly heard acknowledging to reporters that sexual harassment and rape complaints against Trinamool Congress leaders were a BJP conspiracy. One of them said, according to Anandabazar Patrika, that when the National Commission for Women visited the village, she and many others had been taken to meet them by local BJP leader Piyali Das.
The women had reportedly claimed to have not got money under the MGNREGA and said that they had “no other complaints.”
Two other woman said that when police knocked on their doors after a few days with a notice, they realised what the white paper could have been.
One of the women said that Piyali Das had threatened her with murder if she wanted to withdraw the allegedly false rape complaint.
This admission by the three women comes days after the Trinamool Congress – which had been on the backfoot since the allegations made waves – released a nearly 33-minute video that is being called a ‘sting operation’ by various quarters. It purports to show footage taken by a hidden camera in which a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Gangadhar Koyal, claims that the serious allegations of sexual crimes that have come forth from Sandeshkhali in the last few months were all false and that this was engineered by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
Sandeshkhali occupied headlines first on January 5 this year when Enforcement Directorate officers were attacked while on their way to raid TMC bigwig Sheikh Shahjahan in connection with a ration scam. Women began bringing forth allegations of widespread sexual harassment and land grabbing against the leader and his aides. Shahjahan was arrested and is now in the custody of the ED.
