Kolkata: After Manipur, another distressing video in which two tribal women in West Bengal’s Malda district, were assaulted and stripped naked with the police watching as ‘mute spectators’, has surfaced online.
The BJP on Saturday, sharing the video, slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for failing to protect the women in the state. However, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) hit back saying that the women were assaulted after they were caught stealing.
The alleged incident took place at the Pakua Hat, a weekly market at Bamangola in Malda district on July 19. According to locals, five tribal women from the Manikchak area of the district had come to the market to sell local products and were caught stealing from other women.
While three of them managed to escape, two women were allegedly caught by the other women in the market and beaten up.
In the video, a group of women is shown assaulting the two women with slippers and tearing their clothes. A civic police volunteer was also assaulted by the mob when she tried to save the two women. The local people allegedly did not come to the rescue of them.
“The horror continues in West Bengal. Two tribal women were stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly, while police remained a mute spectator in Pakua Hat area of Bamangola Police Station, Malda”, said Amit Malviya, BJP IT cell chief and the party’s co-observer for West Bengal, sharing the video of the incident.
“The horrific incident took place on the morning of 19th July. The women belonged to a socially marginalised community and had a frenzied mob baying for her blood… It had all the making of a tragedy that should have ‘broken’ Mamata Banerjee’s heart and she, instead of merely outraging, could have acted, since she is also the home minister of Bengal,” Malviya said in the post.
“But she chose to do nothing. Neither did she condemn the barbarity nor did she express pain and anguish because it would have exposed her own failing as a chief minister,” he added.
Banerjee on Friday had attacked the BJP over the sexual violence of women in Manipur, taking a dig at the party about its promise of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (save girls, educate girls)’.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar also questioned Banerjee’s silence on this incident. “Another horrific incident with the Tribal women in WB. Two Tribal women were stripped naked & beaten mercilessly in Malda. Like other heinous incidents, Didi is silent & not taking any action in her own rule. Why I.N.D.I.A. isn’t condemning this?” Majumdar said in a post on Twitter.
Senior TMC leader and state minister Shashi Panja, however, slammed the BJP for politicising the incident and said the police have taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and lodged a case.
“It was learnt that the women had come to the local market and were caught stealing from other women. Out of public outrage, the women were beaten up. This should not have happened. But sometimes, people resort to such things when this kind of incident takes place. The female civic volunteer tried to help the women. However, the group of women overpowered them. Later, the two women were rescued,” Panja, the minister of state (independent charge) for women and child development and social welfare, said.
Criticising the BJP for misleading the people, the TMC leader said, “The BJP has no shame. Yesterday too they tried to create a false narrative over an incident in Howrah. Today they are again sharing false information. This incident (Malda) has no political connotation and is a local issue. They want to politicise each and every incident taking place in Bengal to divert people’s attention from the Manipur incident.”
Malda Superintendent of Police Pradeep Kumar Yadav told the media that they have lodged a case. “After learning about the incident, we have lodged a suo motu case. We have started an investigation,” he added.