Hours after Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sheikh Shahjahan was arrested for assault on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, party MLA Udayan Guha on Thursday (29th February) attempted to downplay the sexual exploitation of women in Sandeshkhali.
Guha, who serves as a Cabinet Minister for the Department of North Bengal Development in the Mamata Banerjee government claimed, “I am not sure if Sheikh Shahjahan has been framed as part of a conspiracy but charges against him are a mistake.”
“He has been falsely implicated. This has been happening ever since ED officials were attacked. “In the past, we have never heard these allegations against Sheikh Shahjahan,” the TMC leader gave Sheikh Shahjahan a clean chit.
While trivialising the gravity of sexual violence, Udayan Guha smirked, “I did not know that he liked to eat pie (referring to the sexual exploitation of women) at 12 o’clock in the night. I knew that desire for such mischiefs happen early or late in the night.”
Coincidentally, the TMC Minister has been accused of committing sexual harassment in his Vidhan Sabha constituency of Dinhata.
In a video that went viral on social media on 21st February this year, a woman was heard saying, “At around 12 am, Udyan Guha and his cronies called to the party office to make ‘pitha’. But I refused and questioned their absurdity of making pitha at midnight. Do they not respect us because we are women? Their fiancéce knows no bounds. I have been subjected to occasional harassment. I pleaded with folded hands, will they not let me live in peace? But they did not listen. Yesterday at around 4 o’clock the Panchayat and booth chairman came and instructed to me to attend tomorrow. But I refused saying that I have some dignity. I begged with folded hands. Their response was more violence.”
Sandeshkhali horror
On 8th February this year, hundreds of women in Sandeshkhali took to the streets to protest against land grabbing, non-payment of wages and sexual violence committed by Trinamool Congress goon Sheikh Shahjahan and his two aides Shiba Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar.
The women attacked Shahjahan’s illicitly obtained properties and set fire to a poultry farm owned by Shiba Prasad Hazra. They also surrounded the Sandeshkali police station and demanded the immediate arrest of the trio. The agitation in the village lasted for 3 days.
During that time, the TMC goons retaliated and the police acted as mute spectators. In several cases, the cops themselves resorted to harassment of the women. It had come to light that the residents were the subject of sexual violence by the TMC for a long time.
In a bid to pacify the angry villagers of Sandeshkhali, the TMC leadership suspended Uttam Sardar from the party for six years. The suspended TMC leader and Zilla Parishad member was subsequently arrested in the Sandeshkhali police station area on 10th February 2024.
On 17th February, the police arrested TMC leader Shibu Prasad Hazra over land grabbing and sexual exploitation of women in Sandeshkhali.
After large-scale protests and intervention of the Calcutta High Court, the primary accused Sheikh Shahjahan was arrested on Thursday (29th February).