Sandeshkhali sting: BJP uploads fresh video to counter TMC claims

Days after the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal released a purported sting operation video on Sandeshkhali, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday uploaded a fresh purported video in which a woman, who featured in the sting video of May 4, alleges that she was forced to tell lies and that the sting video was “highly edited”.

“I had to lie to save my husband and child. This was an edited video. I spoke for one hour. Where is the entire video? Only two to three lines were shown on the sting video. I was threatened that if I don’t say the lines my husband and child would be attacked. Selling dignity may happen in big cities not in villages like ours,” the woman said in the fresh video uploaded by Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT head on X handle on May 10.

The TMC, meanwhile, is planning to send a team to meet President Droupadi Murmu to apprise her on how the BJP allegedly made women villagers in Sandeshkhali to lodge false complaints of sexual assaults.

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“The BJP had formally taken a team, comprising some women from Sandeshkhali, to meet the President. She was misguided. Now the TMC too should formally send a team to meet the President. We need to clarify everything and tell the President that those were false cases of sexual assault and that she was misguided by the BJP. We must place the truth before her,” said Shashi Panja while addressing media personnel in Kolkata on Saturday.

The party has already lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) alleging that the BJP paid money to women and made them file false complaints of rape in Sandeshkhali. The TMC is also planning to move the poll panel against Rekha Sharma, chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), the party had said on Friday.

Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district started hitting the headlines from February 7 when villagers, mostly women, came out demanding the arrest of TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides over allegations of sexual assault and land grabbing. Shahjahan was arrested on February 29 on the orders of the Calcutta high court. He was later handed over to the CBI.

Also Read | Twist in Bengal's Sandeshkhali case as woman withdraws rape charges against TMC men: ‘Never forced to…’

On May 4, however, a purported sting video surfaced in which Gangadhar Koyal, a local BJP leader from Sandeshkhali was seen allegedly saying that there were no rapes and women were paid to lodge false complaints of sexual assault.

The TMC continued with its offensive for the straight seventh day with party supremo Mamata Banerjee and other leaders attacking top BJP leaders over the Sandeshkhali incident.

“A drama was staged for some days. But the conspiracy has been busted. Every day Prime Minister Narendra Modi was launching attacks. Do they (BJP) think that we don’t have ears and eyes and we can’t understand anything? For a woman, dignity is more important than money. This Is a heinous crime. The poor women never knew what was written on the documents on which they were made to sign. Such things happened in the past. Now they are coming to the forefront with the truth,” Banerjee said while addressing an election rally in Hooghly.

Even though Union home minister Amit Shah didn’t spare any word on the sting video while attacking the TMC over the Sandeshkhali incident from two back-to-back rallies in Nadia and Birbhum on May 10, the BJP has loaded fresh videos on the social media in which village women could be purportedly seen telling about the atrocities unleashed by arrested TMC strongman Shahjahan.

“Didi should come to Sandeshkhali and see what’s happening. You (Mamata Banerjee) are also a woman like us. Why couldn’t you come to Sandeshkhali?” said one woman in a video.

“They (TMC strongman Shahjahan and his aides) forcefully took our land. We were not allowed to speak. If we spoke, threats would follow. They would flash crude bombs and guns. Men, 25 to 30 of them, would barge into our house. I live with my father. We had to give in,” said a woman in another video uploaded on Friday.