Sandeshkhali row: TMC to move ECI against NCW chief after sting video surfaces.

On Friday, the NCW chairperson in a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) urged to direct its concerned officials to take appropriate action against the TMC workers for threatening the women of Sandeshkhali to withdraw their complaints. The Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has launched a no-holds-barred attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ever since the sting video on Sandeshkhali surfaced on May 4, said on Friday that it would now move the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Rekha Sharma, chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW). “Earlier we had seen delegations of multiple commissions from the Centre visiting Sandeshkhali. Yesterday, a video surfaced in which a woman could be seen saying how the women’s commission almost forced the villagers to lodge complaints of rape. We have already moved the ECI against BJP leaders. Now we will move the ECI against Rekha Sharma, chairperson of NCW”, said Shashi Panja, state Women and Child Development and social welfare minister. The NCW chief visited the violence-hit areas of Sandeshkhali on February 19 and spoke with the village women. She had told reporters that she received 18 complaints out of which two were rape complaints.  “The police and government were not registering the complaints. Only one woman has come out and registered her statement before a magistrate. We want more women to come forward,” she had told reporters. On Friday, the NCW chairperson in a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) urged to direct its concerned officials to take appropriate action against the TMC workers for threatening the women of Sandeshkhali to withdraw their complaints.  Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district started hitting the headlines in February after villagers, mostly women, came out demanding the arrest of TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides over allegations of sexual assault and land grabbing. Shahjahan was arrested on February 29 on the orders of the Calcutta high court. He was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “Sharma further incited the women and coerced them (to lodge false complaints). It was politically motivated and she had received political signals. The BJP orchestrated this and brought in all the commissions. We would also expose more people and more National commissions who were involved in this conspiracy and supported the BJP in this dirty game,” Panja said, adding that the BJP should apologise.