Situation in Sandeshkhali: TMC Leader Arrested on Charges of Sexual Assault & Land Confiscation
Image Source: The Week
The mounting pressure on the West Bengal government and authorities finally burst as Sheikh Shahjahan, a TMC leader in Sandeshkhali, was arrested this morning after his close aides Shibu Hazra, Uttam Sardar, and Ajit Maity were arrested on grave allegations of sexual assault and land confiscation, appropriating them for the fishing business, among other things by several village dwellers in Sandeshkhali. Sheikh had been evading arrest until now.
Women from the village are now celebrating his arrest as they distributed mithai and danced in joy. Some fields were also recaptured by the people of the village and given back to the public.
Tensions were high last week in Sandeshkhali as protests erupted when locals stormed out on the streets and ravaged another TMC leader’s home. People were infuriated by the inaction of the party’s high command. Apart from Shahjahan, his confidante Ajit Maity was also ambushed by people in the Bermajur Kacharibari village of Sandeshkhali; he is leveled with similar charges of misconduct, exploitation, and land grab.
Many women in the village talked about their fear & grief, “We are scared of him; we want respect and our heads held high. We want peace. The land has been grabbed from the farmers, and no lease has been given, no money has been given. The land that was used by the farmers is no longer cultivable, and during the rainy season, our houses were inundated.” They further claimed more gruesome acts like harassment and abuse at gunpoint, all of which had been going on for years. Two weeks earlier, a Child protection team had visited the village to ensure their protection after some people had claimed threats to their life.
BJP also tried to give the fiasco a communal spin when Minister of Child & Development Smriti Irani said Mamta is allowing her men to pick out young Hindu married women to be raped, glossing over the fact two other accused of the case are Hindus themselves.
Before this, Mamta Banerjee had described the allegations as an attack by the BJP to malign TMC, “Always stood up for what is wrong; I took the initiative and sent the state commission; ones who were wearing masks also arrested; they are BJP workers. They were brought to Sandeshkhali to disrupt peace. ED targeted Sheikh Shahjahan and then created a rift between tribals and minorities.” CM said.
SC/ST women from the rural margins are finally boldly standing and defying the power of the behemoths. According to The Print, many women were able to lodge complaints only after securing permission from local TMC heads and how their abject poverty and social backwardness weaken them. Their voices were being smothered by the people at the helm.
While talking to The Wire, a woman said, “They brought me into the party officer, where a group of people was drinking. For the next one and a half days, two of them tortured me in the party office itself. I was told that my husband would not take me back after this, and so I should stay on with the men in the room, that they would give me a government job eventually. They said they would place my husband’s severed head on my palms if I complained about what they had done to me.”
Shahjahan was supposedly arrested after 55 days from his house in Minakhah in West Bengal Parganas district and produced before a local court in Basirhat; a 10-day custody has been secured by the ADG. Calcutta HC said there is no stay on his arrest and questioned the authority’s inaction on the matter.
All of this comes ahead of PM Narendra Modi, who is en route to Bengal for the upcoming election campaign and is reportedly going to meet the victims of the crime.
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