Assam: ABVP burns effigy of Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to protest against Sandeshkhali incident

Guwahati (Assam) [India], March 10 (ANI): Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) Assam unit on Sunday staged a demonstration and burnt the effigy of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to protest against the Sandeshkhali incident.

The protesters demanded to conduct an inquiry through a central agency and to take stern actions against the culprits.

Sandeshkhali in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district had been witnessing widespread protests against suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Shahjahan this month as a section of women were seeking justice against alleged atrocities committed by the TMC leader. A large number of women in Sandeshkhali had accused Shajahan Sheikh and his close aides of “land-grab and sexual assault” under coercion.

After weeks of no action, on February 29, TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan was arrested by West Bengal police, after which West Bengal’s Basirhat Court remanded him to 10-day police custody. He is also a key accused in the Sandeshkhali extortion, land grab, and sexual assault cases.

Earlier in the day, the Basirhat Sub-Divisional Court sent Sheikh to four-day CBI custody in connection with the January 5 attack on the Enforcement Directorate team in Sandeshkhali.

Earlier on Wednesday, following the Calcutta High Court’s directive, the Crime Investigation Department handed over custody of Sheikh Shahjahan to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Meanwhile, launching a scathing attack on Trinamool Congress and the opposition’s INDIA bloc, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that it does not affect the West Bengal government when people are struggling or suffering and the “entire country is discussing what TMC leaders did to the Dalit and Adivasi women of Sandeshkhali”.

Addressing a gathering, PM Modi pointed out that to benefit the TMC’s ‘tolabaz’, 25 lakh fake job cards were created and given to the people.

“TMC government gives money to people chosen by ‘tolabaz’. It does not affect TMC when you are struggling or suffering. The entire country is discussing what TMC leaders did to the Dalit and Adivasi women of Sandeshkhali. Atrocities against women and to loot the hard-earned money of the poor this is what TMC’s ‘tolabaz’ do,” he said.