Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday hit out at Mamata Banerjee over her allegations dubbing Sandeshkhali incident a ‘conspiracy’ by Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Mamata Banerjee has developed a Modus Operandi. First commit atrocities, once people talk about this then hide it and conduct atrocities again. Sandeshkhali is a classic example of this. Under a woman Chief Minister’s nose, according to religion, atrocities are committed against women…She is quiet?” Shah told news agency ANI in an interview.
“High Court has to intervene, still no investigation (by West Bengal Police) and then the case has to go to CBI…she should be ashamed,” the minister added.
Sandeshkhali, a village in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas, was at the centre of a political storm after several women accused local Trinamool Congress strongman Sheikh Shahjahan of land grabbing and sexual assault. Shahjahan was suspended from the TMC and later arrested.
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Earlier this month, the TMC released a video alleging that leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari hatched a conspiracy and paid the women villagers of Sandeshkhali to frame local TMC leadership.
The viral video released by TMC showed a man named Gangadhar Koyal purportedly narrating how Suvendu Adhikari had directed BJP cadre to frame TMC leaders and get them arrested.
Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday at a rally in West Bengal’s Nadia had hit out at the BJP on Sandeshkhali issue. “The BJP and the PM are spreading falsehoods on the issue. The ‘guarantee babu’ (Modi’s guarantee) is maligning West Bengal. Our women were tricked and deceived into writing just anything without their consent. Women are now coming out and saying that they hadn’t filed these (false rape) complaints. Who should be punished for this? I want to tell them that truth wins and a lie doesn’t live forever,” she was quoted by PTI as saying.