NCW member visits ‘tortured’ BJP leader’s home in Bengal

The member of the National Commission for Women, Delina Khongdup, said the panel would not look into the political identity of the victim. She also said she met the officials of Mathabhanga police station, and will talk to the SP on July 1.

Kolkata: NCW member Delina Khongdup on Sunday visited the residence of a BJP woman leader who was allegedly stripped and tortured in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district.

The member of the National Commission for Women said the panel would not look into the political identity of the victim.

BJP state general secretary Agnimitra Paul, who led a party delegation to the Mathabhanga area of the district on Saturday, claimed that the woman, president of the local unit's minority morcha, was beaten and stripped by TMC miscreants on June 25 while she was grazing cattle in the field.

She demanded a CBI probe into the alleged incident of stripping and torture of the woman leader, accusing police of inaction against perpetrators.

"I have met the victim's mother and asked for security at her residence," Khongdup said.

The NCW member also said she met the officials of Mathabhanga police station, and will talk to the SP on July 1.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and women activists of the BJP planned to organise a sit-in in front of the assembly main gate on July 1, protesting against the "barbaric assault on the woman, who belongs to the minority community".

"The TMC had sent its teams to Manipur and Hathras but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is silent over the Mathabhanga incident which has attracted widespread condemnation," Adhikari said.

A woman was allegedly gang-raped in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh's Hathras in 2020. She later died while undergoing treatment in a hospital.

The ethnic conflict between Imphal valley-based Meiteis and hills-based Kukis in Manipur has led to the deaths of over 200 people and rendered thousands of people homeless.

A police officer said the alleged incident in Cooch Behar appeared to have stemmed from a domestic dispute, and seven, out of the ten people named in the FIR, have been arrested. The remaining three will be apprehended soon, he added.

TMC spokesperson Partha Pratim Roy countered BJP's claims, stating that the saffron camp was politicising a family dispute following its defeat in the Lok Sabha elections in Cooch Behar.