Wasn’t raped, says Sandeshkhali’s ‘survivor’ in video | Kolkata News

SANDESHKHALI: An older video of BJP’s Basirhat candidate Rekha Patra allegedly suggested that some of the Sandeshkhali “rape survivors” who were brought to Delhi to meet President Murmu may have been “paid to “to impersonate,” added new impetus to Trinamool’s claims that the unrest in this pocket of Bengal is being engineered by the saffron party.

Patra’s video, part of an interview she gave to a television channel before her nomination, surfaced along with another clip in which one of the “survivors” tells a reporter that BJP members made her give a blank piece of paper sign without revealing what it was for. She denied experiencing sexual assault or going to a police station to file a complaint, reports Sanjib Chakraborty.


As clips emerge, TMC asks: Did BJP mislead Prez on Sandeshkhali?
Rekha Patra, who filed her nomination for the Basirhat seat – Sandeshkhali is part of the constituency – on Thursday declined to comment on the controversy. TMC’s counterattack began with two videos that surfaced last week, one of them about an alleged attack. The party presented this as “evidence” that the BJP’s Bengal top brass, including Nandigram MP Suvendu Adhikari, had allegedly instigated or intimidated several women from Sandeshkhali into filing fabricated rape complaints.

TMC moved against the Election Commission and demanded questioning of all the people featured and named in the videos. The sting is set to show BJP’s Sandeshkhali Block II chief Gangadhar Koyal admitting that the ‘Sandeshkhali movement’ was Adhikari’s idea and that the rape accusers did as they were told.

On Wednesday, the first of the “survivors” made a U-turn, saying she had not faced such an attack and that local BJP members had forced her to sign a blank piece of paper and contact the police. She complained of threats and a social boycott over her decision to withdraw what she said was a false accusation of rape.

The other ‘survivor’ who came in is seen in the video telling reporters that a local BJP Mahila Morcha member named Piyali, alias Mampi Das, took her and a few others to a meeting with a National Commission team I took with me for women.

In the oldest of the clips, BJP candidate Patra refers to 11 people from Sandeshkhali, including five women, who met Prez Murmu on March 11. “We are the real victims, we are still in Sandeshkhali.” Then who are those who were taken to Delhi to meet Rashtrapati Madam? Nobody informed us before the meeting,” she is heard saying.

Two other women, including BJP worker Piyali, are said to be seen in the same video.

“We only came to know from the media that some women were brought to Delhi to meet Prez. Anup Das (a BJP colleague), who used to get Rs 10,000 per month from Trinamool’s Shibaprasad Hazra, took these women to Delhi,” Piyali tells the reporter.

Anup could not be reached for comment but Bengal BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya defended him. “Anup has been with the BJP for over a decade and has helped the Sandeshkhali survivors get legal help. He didn’t do anything wrong. (Rekha) Patra joined the BJP after the Sandeshkhali movement,” he said.

Bengal BJP coordinator Amit Malviya argued that Patra never claimed that crimes did not take place in Sandeshkhali. “The first attempt was to release a fake AI-generated video claiming that the movement was orchestrated and funded (by Adhikari),” he wrote on X.

Trinamool accused the BJP of spinning “a web of lies and deceit”.

“Can we say that the BJP misled Prez at all? How could the delegation from Sandeshkhali travel to Murmu without the consent of the party leadership? What depravity will the BJP plunge into for the sake of a few votes?” said state Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

The Sandeshkhali police asked BJP worker Piyali to report to the local police station within three days under Section 41A of the CrPC. Another complaint was lodged with the police against BJP candidates Patra and Koyal.