TMC MP apologises for rape remark, didi fine with it
KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: The West Bengal lawmaker caught on tape threatening political rivals with rape and murder apologised on Tuesday for “gross error of judgement” even as calls for him to quit grew.
In a l etter t o his party, Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal offered an unconditional apology and that, said chief minister Mamata Banerjee, was enough though another tape in which the 55-year-old is purportedly threatening to behead CPM supporters emerged during the day.
“We condemn Pal’s statements. He was asked to apologise, that he did. What else can I do?” Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool chief, told mediapersons when asked if she would act against the twotime Krishnanagar MP for the rape remarks that have triggered nationwide outrage.
In a video claimed to have been shot on June 14, Pal is heard warning opposition CPM men against harming Trinamool workers, saying he would gun them down and ask his men to rape their women relatives.
“It is not just a mistake, it’s big blunder. We have taken whatever steps that are needed to be taken… What do you want? Should I kill him?” she said.
“Some remarks made by me in the heat and dust of the election campaign have caused dismay and consternation. I apologise unreservedly for them,” Pal, who also acts in Bengali films, said.
It, however, did little to calm the opposition. “We demand immediate arrest of Tapas Pal. We
WE CONDEMN PAL’S STATEMENTS. HE WAS ASKED TO APOLOGISE, THAT HE DID. WHAT ELSE CAN I DO? MAMATA BANERJEE, West Bengal chief minister
will also write to the Lok Sabha speaker to take action against him,” Bengal BJP chief Rahul Sinha said. Party workers held protests across the state.
While the Congress and BJP lodged separate complaints against Pal, the state police could have flouted a Supreme Court order in not acting against him. His remarks amount to criminal intimidation and promoting enmity, a cognisable offence that allows police to act on their own without waiting for a complaint.
The court had in November made it mandatory for the police to register an FIR immediately after they get to know of a cognizable offence.
Seeking his expulsion from Parliament, t he National Commission for Women sent a notice to Pal asking him to explain the remarks. Pal could be staring at more trouble. “Go, chop off the limbs of a CPM man… Let me see who has the guts to arrest any of you! I will not take it easy if anyone dares support the CPM here. I’ll public behead him with an axe, right here!” he is purportedly heard telling party workers in another June 14 tape that surfaced Tuesday evening.
Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha (RS) member D Bandopadhyay has sent a breach of privilege notice to CBI, which had registered a case against him on June 13 for allegedly inflating his travel bills for reimbursements. According to a CBI source, the notice came to the agency through the office of the RS’s Chairman, claiming the agency’s searches at his home and office were breach of his parliamentary privileges.