On Thursday (4th April), the Calcutta High Court slammed the Bengal government during the hearing of the Sandeshkhali violence. The court said that the entire district administration and the ruling dispensation have to owe 100 per cent moral responsibility for this. The bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya made these remarks during the hearing.
Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam said, “Even assuming if one affidavit filed by the women’s lawyer in this case is correct it is shameful. The entire district administration and the ruling dispensation have to owe 100 per cent moral responsibility. It is the safety of the citizens. If you go through the report of the National Commission for SC/ST, even if one per cent is true then it is 100 per cent shameful. West Bengal boasts of the NCRB data on the safety of women. Even if one affidavit is proven to be right, these statistics fall, the public image falls, and the opinion falls. If it falls and crumbles, you cannot be resurrected.”
The Judge further said, “Who is canvassing whose case? For 30 to 40 days you were on the run and people were playing hide and seek. An obscure stand was taken that there was a stay on the arrest. And then a political statement is made that now after the HC clarified we have arrested him. You close your eyes, the world doesn’t become dark.”
During the hearing, advocate Priyanka Tibrewal, who is the petitioner in the suo moto case concerning alleged instances of sexual violence and land grab, mentioned that she had received numerous complaints from Sandeshkhali.
Tibrewal said, “So many people came. They said nothing happened. I am putting the affidavit on record. I am not mentioning their names or they will be under threat. There was a lady who went to visit her father whose land was grabbed. She was taken away in daylight and raped (by people), including (Sheikh) Shahjahan and other workers.”
She added, “This is not just land grabbing but deep issues, including government land officials. The land records were changed and (they were) asked to file a civil suit. How will these people file a civil suit? If they resist, they are tortured and raped. Even the police are involved.”
One of the advocates suggested a web portal for female witnesses to email their grievances, if any. Advocate Priyanka Tibrewal informed the bench that most of these women are illiterate. “Forget emails they won’t be able to even write letters,” she told the bench.
She said, “I have affidavits of several women and men in the area. They say that only one Shahjahan is arrested but 1000s of his aides are roaming around the villages and they are threatening people there not to give statements against Shahjahan. They have said if women give complaints they will behead their husbands, son etc and play football with them.”
Advocate Priyanka Tibrewal added, “Milords, I have an affidavit of one woman, who lives in Kolkata her father’s land in Sandeshkhali was taken away and when she went to meet her father, Shahjahan and his men picked her up and took her to the office of a political party and kept there for over 13 days and continuously raped her. They told her that she was their entertainment. She was left only after her husband and father pleaded before them. There is a pattern… They want illegal immigrants from Bangladesh to enter the region and they are trying to curb the Bengali Hindus. They want the Hindus to run away from there and that is what is happening. If a single word of my affidavits is said to be untrue I will leave the profession forever.”
In response to this argument, the advocate general of the West Bengal state said that the PILs filed by Tibrewal, in the Sandeshkhali case, are personally motivated and politically inspired. The bench reserved its order after that.
The Bengal Police arrested former TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan on 29th February for an assault on an Enforcement Directorate team in Sandeshkhali on 5th January. He and his associates face allegations from multiple women of coercive land grabbing and sexual assault.