'They asked us to chant Jai Shri Ram': TMC presents woman alleging torture, extortion in Delhi

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday presented a woman named Sajnur Parvin at a press conference here, who alleged that she was falsely accused of being a Bangladeshi, taken to a secluded location, tortured along with her child, and extorted by four people posing as Delhi Police personnel.

The allegations came days after the Delhi Police denied assault charges, following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's X post on Sunday, where she referred to a video to allege that police in the national capital did not spare even a child whose mother tongue is Bengali.

"Two men and two women, posing as Delhi Police personnel, first raided our house on July 25, checked our Aadhaar cards and searched for my husband, who was out for work then. They called us Bangladeshis, although we kept telling them we were from West Bengal," Parvin alleged.

"They returned the next day, took us to a secluded location and asked us to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'. I told them I am a Muslim and refused. They slapped me and kicked me in my belly. They also assaulted my child," she added.

While BJP MP Soumendu Adhikari, brother of state's Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, has reportedly filed a complaint against CM Banerjee at the Mandir Marg police station in Delhi, alleging distortion of facts, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh accompanied Parvin and her family to the Pragati Maidan PS in Kolkata to lodge a complaint against Delhi Police shortly after the press conference.

Parvin, who claimed to be a native of the Chanchal area of Malda district and staying at Delhi with her family as migrants, gave a detailed account of the alleged torture in the national capital.

"When they roughed up my child, he started bleeding from his ear, and we were denied medical treatment," she continued, while addressing reporters at the TMC office here.

She also claimed, "Delhi Police told us that West Bengal people mean Bangladeshis. They also extorted Rs 25,000 from my family before releasing us from their custody." The woman also accused the Delhi Police personnel of forcing her to sign papers, taking away her mobile phone and not allowing them to meet anyone.

Delhi Police had on Monday highlighted a video, shared by 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".

"The so-called assault video of the family was falsely created by a relative who acted on instructions from a political leader based out of Bengal's Malda district," a senior Delhi Police officer had stated.

Suvendu Adhikari had on Monday shared on his social media handle another CCTV footage showing Parvin and her child leaving her house all by herself, and appeared to be walking unhurt, refuting her claim that she was forcefully taken by the police.

In his bid to "expose Mamata Banerjee's lies", Adhikari claimed he learned from "reliable sources" that Parvin fabricated her story on the influence of a TMC supporting relative and a journalist.

Responding to that claim, Parvin said, "This is only part of the footage. The missing crucial parts do not show where we were taken to and what kind of torture we faced there. The edited video clip shows only my return to our residence in Delhi." The claims sparked a war of words between the Trinamool and the BJP.

"There is a concerted effort to hush up these people after our leader Mamata Banerjee protested. The videos of the location where the woman and his child were tortured have not been released. Instead, the family was extorted. They were told Bengal and Bangladesh are synonymous," Ghosh said.

Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said the woman's statement validates the chief minister's social media post.

"The CM has done the right thing by speaking up. The victim's ordeal proves that the CM's claim was true," Hakim said.

The TMC leader said the party and the state government would do everything to protect Bengali-speaking migrants in BJP-ruled states.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said, "The TMC can go to ridiculous lengths to spread lies. Let them file a case against the Delhi Police, and we will see where this goes." "Mamata Banerjee will have to take full responsibility for spreading misinformation from her verified account. The police will act soon," Adhikari added.