Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 9: The Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal is again in the docks with a video going viral on the social media showing a close aide of a senior Trinamool Congress leader thrashing a girl with some others “enjoying” her ordeal.
Police on Tuesday suo motu filed a criminal case against Jayanta Singh, close aide of the ruling TMC leader Madan Mitra, a confidant of the chief minister. But the opposition BJP is playing up the video, though it turned out to be an old one, underlining it as the “Talibani TMC Government.”
The case was booked by the police within hours of the old video surfaced on the social media showing the incident in a club room in Kamarhati town.
Bengal’s Barrackpore Police took to X, writing, “BKP PC has taken note of an old video now in circulation on social media involving assault on a girl. A suo motu criminal case has been started. All legal actions against persons seen in video (2 among them are already in custody) are being taken.”
In the video, a few men can be seen holding the girl by her hands and legs and swinging her in the air as Singh and other men beat her up relentlessly with sticks. The woman can be heard screaming for help, but the TMC leader’s aide keeps beating her while others laugh at her plight. The BJP shared the video on X, comparing Bengal’s TMC with Taliban.
This comes days after the police have levelled serious charges, including attempt to murder, assault with intent to outrage the modesty of a woman, and causing grievous hurt, against another TMC strongman Tajemul Islam who was arrested for a similar flogging of a couple in Chopra.
Islam, who was remanded to police custody for five days by a local court in Uttar Dinajpur on Monday, also has 12 old criminal cases, including a murder case, pending against him. He was arrested on Sunday after a video surfaced which showed him mercilessly caning a couple in Chopra. The incident sparked controversy, leading Governor CV Ananda Bose to seek a report from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while the BJP accused the ruling TMC of “unleashing Taliban rule” in the state.
The BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Tuesday slammed the Mamata government over the Kamarhati flogging incident and also roped in the senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioning whether the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and other INDIA bloc opposition leaders would bother to visit the victim.
The BJP spokesperson took to his X handle and shared a video of a group of men thrashing someone, captioning it, “Another Horrific Talibani video from Bengal after Chopra Talibani flogging.” He alleged that in the video, a “close associate of TMC MLA is thrashing a girl with his gang.”
Sharing the video on X, Shehzad Poonawalla said, “One more Bengal Talibani video has surfaced, which shows that a woman is being brutally beaten by a person who is close to the Trinamool Congress leaders.” “Incidents like these are constantly happening. TMC now means Talibani Mujhe Chahiye. And TMC leaders are defending it. They also defended the Chopra incident and the Sandeshkhali incident, for which the Mamata government was also reprimanded by the Supreme Court,” he added.
Criticising the Bengal government for saving the culprits, he said, “Today, the Mamata government has “changed its slogan from ‘Ma Mati Manush’ to ‘Balaatkaari bachao’ (save the rapists), ‘Bhrashtachaari bachao’ (save the corrupt) and ‘Bomb Blast karne waalo ko bachao’ (save the bombers).”
Slamming the INDIA bloc for its “hypocrisy” of maintaining silence on this issue, Mr Poonawalla said, “The sad thing is that the leaders who talk a lot about women’s empowerment and the others who reach Manipur, like Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, will he go and meet this woman? Will they talk against the Mamata government? Will leaders like Priyanka Vadra, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Aam Aadmi Party speak on this issue? No, it is just a pin-drop silence on the Sandeshkhali, Swati Maliwal, Talibani incident in Chopra and this recent Talibani incident.”
Alleging that the Trinamool leaders have “themselves confirmed” the video, he wrote in his post on X, “THEIR DEFENCE IS THAT IT’S A FEW WEEKS/MONTHS OLD! Is that even a defence? It means TMC, as usual, suppressed the video using threats.”