The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday hit out at each other over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the violence in West Bengal after the recently held assembly elections. The issue gained momentum when some sections of the media reported that “21 cases of sexual harassment forwarded by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) were closed by the CBI for want of evidence”. The CBI has rejected the claim.
A war of words broke out after TMC MP Sukhendu Shekhar Ray tweeted: “The CBI has not found evidence in 21 cases of sexual assault and rape in the alleged post-poll violence by the National Human Rights Commission in a report filed before the Calcutta High Court. Therefore, NHRC should be dissolved to serve the political interests of BJP. Cat is out of the bag.”
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jawahar Sarkar tweeted, “Remember BJP’s ruckus about rape of women after elections in West Bengal? All 21 Sexual Harassment, Rape Cases Sent To CBI By BJP’s NHRC – CBI Dismisses As Fake!
TMC spokesperson Debangshu Bhattacharya Dev also tweeted, “There were 39 “accusations” of rape during the so-called “post-poll violence” in Bengal. According to the investigation so far, the allegations in 21 out of 39 cases have already been found to be completely false! Duration.”
Coming down heavily on the leaders of the ruling party in Bengal and criticizing the media reports, BJP’s National Information and Technology Department chief and West Bengal co-in-charge Amit Malviya tweeted, “These malicious media stories are aimed at Mamata Banerjee. To save from power. The results of the investigation undermine the fight of the victims, many of them women, who were raped and brutalized by TMC men to stand with the BJP, while the CM and his police looked the other way.
Malviya highlighted another tweet which claimed that Additional Solicitor General YJ Dastur has asked the editor of an English daily to immediately withdraw a report and apologize for the wrong reporting in the ongoing Bengal violence cases before the Calcutta HC. asked for The CBI contends that “there is no evidence in the 21 rape cases mentioned by the NHRC”.
Condemning the statement made by TMC leaders, former BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “From the statement of CBI, it is clear that they have not closed 21 cases and it has been handed over to the state SIT. I think TMC leaders should do their homework based on facts before uploading their statement on social media.
Meanwhile, the CBI in its statement on Tuesday evening said: “It has been reported in a section of the media on January 3 and January 4, 2022 that 21 cases of sexual harassment by NHRC were closed by CBI, alleging that The cases of rape, attempt to rape, molestation, sexual assault were found in those complaints, holding that there was no evidence….On August 19, 2021, the Calcutta High Court directed the CBI to investigate incidents of murder, rape and attempt to rape. Based on the order of the court, the CBI has registered only those cases which fulfill these criteria (murder, rape and attempt to rape) which are in progress.
“It is clarified that the CBI had received 29 complaints of sexual harassment from NHRC relating to sexual offenses till December 22, 2021. Two of these cases were assigned to the State Special Investigation Team (SIT) on the basis of its nature. For offenses as mandated in the orders of the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court. Further, two complaints relating to the same incident of sexual harassment were received by the CBI, which were amalgamated, resulting in registration of only one regular case for investigation. Remaining cases are in progress,” it read.
The probe agency further said, “It may also be mentioned that the state police had referred 64 incidents to the CBI to pursue the orders of the Calcutta High Court. Out of this, 39 offenses were taken over by the CBI by registering regular cases. Taken, four references are under process while 21 references were returned to the State Police/SIT based on the nature of the crime, as mandated in the CBI order by the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court on August 19, 2021 for post-poll murder Asked to investigate cases of violence, rape and attempt to rape.
“As such, the report published in a section of the media alleges that the CBI has found no evidence in the 21 cases listed by the NHRC as an offense of sexual harassment, in which there is misrepresentation of facts, clearly mischievous, Grossly misleading and completely wrong. Accordingly, the same is strongly denied. It may be mentioned that at the time of submission of status report, CBI had registered 50 regular cases and incidents of post-poll violence. A preliminary inquiry was conducted. Till the submission of status report, CBI had submitted chargesheet in 10 cases while remaining cases are in progress,” the CBI statement read.
On Monday, the Calcutta High Court took note of the latest status report on the ‘post-poll violence in West Bengal’ submitted by the Special Investigation Team set up by the CBI and the Bengal government.
Dastur appeared on behalf of the CBI before a division bench of the Calcutta HC comprising Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice IP Mukherjee.
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