BJP stages dharnas over stripping of two women in West Bengal's Malda

The BJP on Sunday staged dharnas in front of the West Bengal Assembly and the office of Malda Superintendent of Police in protest against the alleged assault and stripping of two women at a marketplace in the district.

Seeking the removal of Malda district SP, the BJP's legislative party members sat on a dharna in front of the Assembly. Five BJP MLAs, including Manoj Tigga and Shankar Ghosh, held placards and raised slogans demanding the removal of the SP over the incident that took place at Pakua Hat in Bamangola police station area earlier this week.

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Maldaha Uttar constituency's BJP MP Khagen Murmu also sat on a dharna with party workers outside the SP's office in Malda town. The sit-in demonstration of the BJP workers, which began on Saturday afternoon, continued on Sunday.

"The police must take stringent action against those involved in the gruesome act of assaulting and disrobing the women," he said.

"Police have also lathi-charged our protesting workers," he said.

Police have registered a suo motu case and detained five persons in connection with the incident.

A purported video of the incident showing a mob beating up the women mercilessly was shared on social media by Amit Malviya, the head of BJP's IT cell on Saturday.

In a tweet, Malviya claimed that two women were "stripped naked, tortured and beaten mercilessly, while the police remained a mute spectator".

Rubbishing the charges, the Women and Child Health Minister Shashi Panja told reporters that the two were embroiled in a scuffle with other women who accused them of theft and women civic police volunteers who were present at the spot tried to stop them.

She accused the BJP of resorting to "diversionary tactics" by "hyping" a quarrel between local women over the selling of vegetables and allegations of theft.

"The scuffle has no political or caste overtones… BJP is unnecessarily making this a political issue," the minister asserted.