Representative image showing a police officer. (Inset: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee)
Credit: iStock Photo, PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday called a video shared by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on social media, alleging that a Bengali-speaking woman and her child were assaulted in the national capital for speaking their language, "fabricated" and "politically motivated."
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Abhishek Dhania on Monday said that the police took immediate cognizance of the video shared on platform 'X' by the West Bengal CM, where she claimed that the woman and her child were brutally assaulted by Delhi Police personnel.
"Upon inquiry, we identified the woman as Sanjanu Parveen. During questioning, she alleged that on the night of July 26, four men in plain clothes posing as police personnel took her and her child to a secluded spot and demanded Rs 25,000, which she claimed to have paid," Dhania said.
However, the DCP said that a detailed investigation, including analysis of CCTV footage and local intelligence, revealed inconsistencies in her story.
"During sustained questioning, the woman admitted that her relative, a political worker from Malda district in West Bengal, had asked her to make the video. The video was then circulated locally in Bengal and later surfaced on social media," the officer said.
Terming the video "baseless and fabricated", Dhania added that the footage was deliberately created to defame the Delhi Police.
"This appears to be a deliberate attempt to malign the image of Delhi Police through a politically motivated narrative. The matter is still under investigation," he said.