TMC ministers visit troubled Sandeshkhali; assert 'zero tolerance' for wrongdoing

Kolkata: Three Trinamool Congress ministers on Sunday visited protests-hit Sandeshkhali and said the party has zero tolerance against any wrongdoing, while questioning whether the BJP governments have taken any steps in states where allegations of atrocities on people were raised.

Senior minister Sujit Bose asked what action the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur have taken in alleged cases of atrocities there.

Partha Bhowmick, who was also part of the three-minister team, claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah came to West Bengal 42 times before the 2021 assembly elections in the state, but "people here do not care what he says."

Asserting that the TMC has "zero tolerance against any wrongdoing", he alleged that West Bengal was being targeted by the BJP leadership.

"This is Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and not the BJP, we take action if anyone is found to have done anything wrong," Bhowmick told reporters.

In his address at the BJP's national convention in New Delhi on Sunday, Shah claimed that hundreds of the saffron party workers were killed in political violence in West Bengal.

Apart from Bose and Bhowmick, minister Birbaha Hansda was also part of the team which visited Sandeshkhali to speak to the villagers and party leadership there.

Villages in Sandeshkhali area have witnessed protests over allegations of sexual atrocities on women and land grabbing since the first week of February. They have charged Shajahan Sheikh, Uttam Sardar, Shibaprasad Hazra and other local TMC leaders with these offences.

Hazra was arrested on Saturday while Sardar was picked up around a week ago.

IPC sections of gangrape and attempt to murder were added against the two, along with other charges, following a statement by an alleged victim before a magistrate.

To a question whether action will be taken against Sheikh, Bhowmick claimed that he has no influence in Sandeshkhali.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials were attacked by a mob when they went to search the premises of Sheikh on January 5 in connection with a probe into an alleged ration distribution scam.

The party has already suspended Uttam Sardar, Bhowmick said.

He claimed that allegations that villagers were still being terrorised by TMC goons were false and that these were being fabricated by the opposition BJP and CPI(M).

Bose said that an enquiry into the allegations against Hazra, who is also a Zilla Parishad member of North 24 Parganas district, is being carried out by the party.

The charge of TMC block president of Sandeshkhali block II was handed over to local MLA Sukumar Mahata from Hazra for the time being, Bose said.

He said that they would come to Sandeshkhali again on February 26 to review the situation there.

He said that the party would pay the dues of those villagers whose land holdings were allegedly grabbed by Hazra and Sardar without payment.

Bose said that they were visiting places in Sandeshkhali where prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC were not imposed.

Opposition party leaders, including central ministers who came as part of a BJP team, have accused the police administration of not allowing them to visit Sandeshkhali.

Prohibitory orders on congregations of five or more people are in place at 19 places in Sandeshkhali.

Alleging that TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh was the kingpin of atrocities against the villagers, the opposition parties in the state are demanding that he be arrested.

The police have arrested former CPI(M) MLA of Sandeshkhali, Nirapada Sardar, and local BJP leader Bikash Singh, for their alleged involvement in instigating violent protests by the villagers.