India News | BJP Leader Writes to CBI Seeking Security for 'victims of Sexual Abuse' in Sandeshkhali
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. BJP leader Priyanka Tibrewal has urged the CBI to address security concerns of alleged victims of sexual abuse by TMC leaders in Sandeshkhali.
Sandeshkhali (WB), May 13 (PTI) BJP leader Priyanka Tibrewal has urged the CBI to address security concerns of alleged victims of sexual abuse by TMC leaders in Sandeshkhali.
She wrote a letter to the central agency in the wake of BJP protests in the trouble-torn area in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district.
Tibrewal, the state unit secretary of BJP and one of the prominent faces in the saffron party's legal team, alleged in the recent letter that the local TMC-run panchayat was threatening and intimidating "victims of sexual violence" to withdraw complaints of sexual harassment against local TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters but the "police were not coming to their support".
Tibrewal said that as an advocate, she had been permitted to record witness accounts of the victims by the Calcutta High Court on February 26, and the court directed the CBI to record statements of the victims and asked the state police to set up CCTV cameras in "sensitive pockets" of the area.
Also Read | Rajasthan Shocker: 17-Year-Old Girl Gang-Raped in Churu, Dies by Consuming Poison; Two Accused Arrested.
However, while no CCTV cameras were set up, the women were facing intimidation and threats to take back their complaints, she alleged.
She also advocated the prompt deployment of central paramilitary forces in the area to stop the "threat and intimidation" of Sandeshkhali victims. A copy of her mail to CBI was made available to PTI on Monday.
BJP protesters, mostly women, had on Sunday beat up a local TMC activist during their demonstration over "dissemination of false information about atrocities on women".
Riverine Sandeshkhali, located around 100 km from Kolkata, has been on the boil since February, with protests over allegations of sexual abuse and land grabbing against now arrested TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters.
Multiple purported videos recently surfaced on social media that claimed that a local BJP party leader made several women of Sandeshkhali sign blank papers, which were later filled up as complaints of sexual assault against TMC leaders, and that women were paid money to participate in the protests.
PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
The TMC has accused BJP, including Tibrewal, of building a false narrative over Sandeshkhali to malign the party and West Bengal.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)