KOLKATA: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday asked West Bengal government to submit a report on the incident in which two tribal women were seen being stripped and beaten up by a group of attackers in a local market in Malda district a week ago. The NHRC asked the superintendent of police, Malda, to submit the report within a month.
Before the video went viral, the local police arrested them on the charges of attacking a police outpost on July 17 under the banner of the BJP and were released on bail later.
The NHRC swung into action after a human rights defender, Sangita Chakraborty, wrote to the human rights body urging it to taken cognizance on its own and register a complaint against the officer-in-charge of Bamangola police station. She requested the central rights body to form a team of delegations to conduct a thorough and unbiased investigation into the incident.
Sangita also called for stringent action against the individuals of the attackers and demanded accountability of the local police station for its negligence and inhuman treatment of the victims.
Amid outrage over a video showing two disrobed women being paraded in a strife-hit pocket in Manipur, the BJP highlighted the Malda episode using it as a counter-tool to attack the ruling Trinamool Congress which lambasted the BJP-led centre over the issue of the incident in the northeast state. Showing the video of the alleged incident, saffron camp’s IT-cell head Amit Malviya described the attackers “a frenzied mob baying for her blood”.
Mercury in Bengal politics soared up on the first day of the Bengal Assembly’s monsoon session which started on Monday. The TMC took decision in an all-party meet, which was skipped by the BJP and lone ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui, to discuss the violence in Manipur.
The BJP, the opposition in the Assembly, said they would oppose any such discussion on Manipur in Assembly and want a discussion on the lawlessness in the state.
Suvendu Adhikari, Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA who returned from Delhi on Wednesday said the party would raise the issue of Bengal’s lawlessness in the Assembly on Thursday. “We will not raise the violence in panchayat polls because we know the Speaker will not allow us saying the matter is being heard by the Calcutta High Court. We will raise the overall picture of lawlessness in the state,” he said.