'Hunting down Hindu women': BJP trains gun on TMC over Sandeshkhali

'Women are the most unsafe in a state where a woman is the chief minister,' said BJP MP Locket Chatterjee on Monday

The West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit on Monday took on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the Sandeshkhali issue and alleged that "TMC-linked goons" were hunting down Hindu women and sexually assaulting them.

During a press conference, BJP MP Locket Chatterjee stated that houses of women who had been accused of sexual assault by local TMC leaders were being robbed after giving news interviews.

"Mamata Banerjee has not given a single statement till now. Shahjahan Sheikh is still absconding. The police are not able to track him down. Mamata Banerjee said no FIR has been filed. Why? Because the police did not file any case. The police administration has become TMC's office," Chatterjee alleged.

"Women who were sexually assaulted gave news interviews. They had covered their faces. They said don't show our faces or else we will be attacked again. People are coming in police uniforms and looting their houses," she said.

Further alleging that women in West Bengal were the "most unsafe", she said, "These women voted for you [Mamata Banerjee] in 2011. They were unsafe during the Left government's 34-year rule. And now, women are the most unsafe in a state where a woman is the chief minister."

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"They want those 30 per cent of votes. They are hunting down Hindu women and assaulting them. We have heard about atrocities against women in Pakistan. The same thing is happening in West Bengal and Mamata Banerjee is silent. She is saying that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [RSS] is behind this [Sandeshkhali incident]," Chatterjee alleged.

A day earlier, Banerjee attacked the BJP over the controversy surrounding the Sandeshkhali issue and said the incident was "made to happen."

Speaking at an event in Birbhum, Banerjee said, "One incident happened. It was made to happen. First, the Enforcement Directorate [ED] went. Then its friend, the BJP, went there. Some media went along and they are making a mountain out of a molehill. They are trying to disrupt peace here and start a fire."

Banerjee said she was sending officers to Sandeshkhali to address the allegations of sexual assault and land grabbing by TMC leaders. She further said that if anyone's land was taken, it would be returned.

She added, "I have never supported injustice. No woman has filed an FIR. I told the police to register a case. Our block president was arrested. How many BJP leaders have been arrested in such cases?"

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Banerjee's comments came after TMC leader Shiba Prasad Hajra, one of the prime accused in a case of alleged land grab and sexual harassment of women in Sandeshkhali, was remanded in police custody for eight days by a court in North 24 Parganas district on Sunday.

A large number of women in Sandeshkhali accused Sheikh and his supporters of "land grab and sexually assaulting" them under coercion.

Sheikh has been absconding after a mob, allegedly affiliated with him, attacked ED officials who had gone to search his premises in connection with a ration scam on January 5.