TMC accuses NCW chief of ‘bias’, may move EC
KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday accused National Commission of Women (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma of acting on “political bias” and inciting women in Sandeshkhali to register false sexual assault complaints against its leaders, adding it will move the Election Commission of India against her.
Sandeshkhali, a riverine island in North 24 Parganas district, witnessed violent protests earlier this year over allegations of sexual atrocities on women and land grabbing by local leaders of the West Bengal’s ruling party.
“Yesterday, a video surfaced in which a woman could be seen saying how the women’s commission almost forced the villagers to lodge complaints of rape. We have already moved the ECI against BJP leaders. Now we will move ECI against Rekha Sharma, chairperson of NCW,” state’s women and child development minister and TMC spokesperson Shashi Panja alleged.
A purported video of a Sandeshkhali woman shared by the TMC on Wednesday claimed that a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader made those women sign on blank papers which were later filled up as complaints of sexual assault.
“A local woman BJP leader took my mother-in-law to the police station saying that the women’s commission has come. I wasn’t home at that time. The BJP leader asked her (mother-in-law) to sign a black document and later we came to know that a complaint of sexual assault has been lodged against four persons,” a Sandeshkhali woman is heard saying in the video.
HT could not independently verify the veracity of the video.
Earlier on May 4, the TMC had shared another purported video, allegedly shot on spy cam, in which a BJP leader from Sandeshkhali was heard claiming that Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the assembly, was behind the “whole conspiracy”.
Panja pointed out that the Centre had sent multiple delegations of national commissions to Sandeshkhali when the region was tensed amid violent protests.
“Rekha Sharma incited the women and coerced them (to lodge false complaints). It was politically motivated and she had received political signals. The BJP orchestrated this and brought in all the commissions. We would also expose more people and more national commissions involved in this conspiracy and supported the BJP in this dirty game,” Panja claimed, seeking an apology from the BJP.
The NCW chairperson, who visited violence-hit Sandeshkali on February 19 and spoke with women there, had recommended imposition of the President’s Rule in West Bengal over alleged atrocities on women.
“The police and government were not registering the complaints. Only one woman has come out and registered her statement before a magistrate. We want more women to come forward,” she had told reporters.
Sharma did not respond to multiple phone calls and text messages from HT for a comment.
Besides the NCW, a delegation of the National Commission for Scheduled Caste led by its chairperson Arun Halder and a team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had also visited Sandeshkhali in February.
Later in the day, the NCW in a letter to the EC asserted that the women of Sandeshkhali were coerced into retracting their complaints.
“It has come to the notice of the Commission that the women of Sandeshkhali are being compelled to withdraw their complaints by TMC workers as they are the ruling party in West Bengal,” it said in the letter, seeking an inquiry from the poll panel on the matter.