The Trinamool Congress lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari seeking criminal proceedings against him for “concocting” rape allegations and running a fake narrative regarding the Sandeshkhali incident.
The complaint is based on a purported video in which a man claiming to be Gangadhar Kayal, the BJP’s mandal president in Sandeshkhali, is heard saying that Mr. Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, was behind the whole conspiracy.
In the sting operation video shot by a news platform and shared by the Trinamool on social media, Mr. Kayal is heard saying sexual harassment complaints were filed at the behest of Mr. Adhikari. The BJP has rejected the video accusing the Trinamool of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to discredit them.
“The BJP concocted the rape allegations in Sandeshkhali and ran a fake narrative, simply to defame Bengal and bring a bad name to the TMC. All this was done to seek pure political advantage. We hold top BJP leader in Bengal Suvendu Adhikhari squarely responsible for this conspiracy,” Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose told reporters after submitting the complaint. She added that in the video, it is clearly seen that the women were paid ₹2,000 to ₹3,000 to make these complaints.
“We have urged the Election Commission to direct the police to start criminal proceedings against Mr. Adhikari. We also want the other BJP leaders on the video, to be detained and questioned. We hope this kind of gross dishonouring of women never happens again just for drawing political benefit,” Ms. Ghose said. She also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah must apologise for defaming Bengal following the incident.
