Sandeshkhali woman revokes rape complaints against TMC men | India News – Times of India

SANDESHKHALI: One of the three Sandeshkhali women whose rape complaints against Trinamool functionaries stoked unrest in this rural block of Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district did an about-turn on Wednesday, saying she faced no such assault and that local BJP members forced her to sign a blank sheet of paper and approach police.
The woman lodged a fresh complaint at Sandeshkhali police station, citing threats and social ostracism because of her decision to withdraw the purportedly false charge of rape.

She alleged that a local BJP Mahila Morcha functionary and other party members visited her home and asked her to sign what was to be a fictitious complaint.
“They asked for my signature on the pretext of enlisting my name for PMAY. Later, they took me to the police station to lodge a complaint of sexual abuse. There was no sexual assault on me inside the Trinamool office. I was never forced to go to the party office late at night,” she said.
The woman said she and her family were facing a social boycott engineered by local BJP functionaries ever since she decided to come clean. “We are feeling unsafe, and I have sought police help.”

The Mahila Morcha member named by the complainant said the latter was the wife of a Trinamool booth president and was being guided by party seniors.
“Nobody forced her to file a complaint. She and other women themselves narrated their plight to National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma. The truth will come out if CCTV footage from inside the police station is released. She and her husband have also been accused of siphoning money from Amphan and Bulbul cyclone relief funds.”
The twist in the case comes three days after a purported sting showed Gangadhar Koyal, a BJP mandal president in Sandeshkhali block II, saying no rape or sexual harassment took place and that the women had filed the complaints at Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari’s behest.

TMC minister Shashi Panja said, “After Saturday’s video exposed BJP’s conspiracy behind the Sandeshkhali incident, women are bravely trying to withdraw the false complaints. But the BJP-backed culprits are threatening to harm them. They are even trying to extort money.”