Sandeshkhali is a village in the Sandeshkhali II CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. The elected MP of Sandeshkhali is a woman – Nusrat Jahan, working under a woman Chief Minister – Mamata Banerjee. Despite this, women of Sandeshkhali have been humiliated and tortured by Sheikh Shahjahan, TMC’s strongman and Mamata Banerjee’s close aide. They are protesting and demanding his arrest, however, there are several unseen layers to their misery – beyond what meets the eye.

Sandeshkhali women have come on record, on video, explaining how they were being sexually exploited by Sheikh Shahjahan and his men.

While speaking to Republic Bangla on Saturday (10th February), a resident of Sandeshkhali recounted, “TMC workers would come to the village and pick out the ‘beautiful women.’ These men would hunt for young women and send diktat to their families to hand over the victims to them.”

“You may be the husband but you cannot exercise your right. They would take your wife away for nights at a stretch. They would not release the women from their captivity until they were ‘fully satisfied. They have 20-30 goons with them. They would come in bikes and exercise their writ in the village,” she emphasized. Another woman narrated, “I too have the same experience. They would forcibly take the women away to the party (TMC) office at night and free them only in the morning.”

Several such testimonies have emerged as the Sandeshkhali issue snowballed. Women speak of how their husbands were intimidated and threatened if they dared to protest against the sexual exploitation of their wives.

Despite the testimonies on video of several women, the special teams – two of them – that visited Sandeshkhali to investigate the case have received no complaint of rape.

One team was that was NCW and the other of Bengal Police headed by CID. A report in the Times of India says that the teams received complaints of land grab, molestation, harassment, torture etc, but not of rape. Charges of land grab, assault, harassment, non-payment of dues, and two instances of molestation were made and four complaints were received by a 10-member West Bengal police team led by CID DIG. Further, according to the report, complaints of intimidation and harassment were received by the two-member NCW team. The TOI report quotes a resident of Sandeshkhali who spoke to the cops saying that the police had refused to accept any complaints for over three years.

This report, now, will be used to whitewash the horror that the women of Sandeshkhali have been going through at the hands of TMC goons for years. However, it becomes important to understand the layers of misfortune of Hindu women of West Bengal and Sandeshkhali in particular.

OpIndia had compiled 12 videos where victims narrated the ordeal faced by them. One woman informed that the Block Development Officer (BDO) and the local police are working hands-in-gloves with the TMC party cadre.

According to Republic Bangla, the police accompanied the Trinamool Congress workers and harassed the women protesting against party goons Sheikh Shahjahan, Uttam Sardar, and Shibo Prasad Hazra.

“We could not sleep a wink since a large contingent of police came here with bikes and cars. The sound of their approaching footsteps and loud talks terrorized us throughout the night. The men in our families could not stay the night due to their fear,” a woman narrated her ordeal. “Police came to our house at 3 am. They abused my husband and tried to molest me. They even broke my Pola (red bangle married Bengali Hindu women wear). The police threw away my daughter. Policemen were so drunk that they were unable to stand,” the wife of a local BJP worker Bhujang Das informed.

Other residents of Sandeshkhali recounted the ill-treatment by the local cops. One woman was heard saying, “The police asked me if I sleep with other men. How could they ask me this? I need an answer. What wrong have I committed to be insulted with abuses like mother f*cker?”

“The police abused my husband as a ‘son of a pig.’ He was pulled out of the house. What crime did he commit? We need justice. Can the police personnel abuse someone like this?” she continued.

Therefore, there are certain facts, when we talk about Sandeshkhali, that need to be taken into account. First, the man the women are accusing, along with his goons, is a TMC strongman and also a close aide of Mamata Banerjee himself. Second, the women are on record saying that the police had refused to accept their complaints for several years. Third, several women have come on record to blame the police as much as Shahjahan and his men.

Now, the very police who have been accused by the women of Shandeshkhali as aiding the TMC goons – goons of a strongman close to Mamata Banerjee – are trying to ‘instil confidence’ in women to come ahead and file complaints of rape.

One has to truly understand the predicament of these women. Firstly, for women especially belonging to the rural part of India, filing a complaint of rape is never an easy decision. Even talking about it on camera, like the women of Sandeshkhali did, is a decision that must have come after they saw no other option. There is a substantial stigma attached to rape victims and the decision to file a complaint comes at a heavy personal and societal cost. Further, these women were expected to trust the very police that has also been tormenting them for years. As is the testimony of the victims, the Bengal police refused to accept complaints against Sheikh Shahjahan and his men for over 3 years. Further, some statements indicate that the police were complicit and aiding the goons of Sheikh in the torment being unleashed upon the resists of Sandeshkhali. In such a scenario, a police team will certainly not be trusted by the women, enough to give them complaints of rape.

Further, Sheikh Shahjahan himself has not been arrested. Given the track record of TMC, there is a suspicion that the police and the government is deliberately taking no action against Sheikh because he is viewed as being a close aide of the Chief Minister herself. The women of Sandeshkhali are certainly scared of the consequences they might have to face if they file complaints with the police and just as they have in the past, they end up helping Sheikh and his men in ensuring that the women who filed the complaints are taught a lesson later.

It is unthinkable that women, who have been regularly abused, harassed, and sexually exploited by the very goons they say have been protected by the police, would come out and file official complaints with the same police about the same set of goons they have been protecting.

Truth be told, while it is likely that the women were scared to file complaints of rape, I would personally not be surprised if we find out in a few days that the women wanted to complain but the police team simply turned a blind eye.

We saw a similar predicament during the post-poll violence of 2021 where TMC men had gone on a killing, arson, and raping spree against Hindus. Several victims had spoken to journalists about the sexual exploitation and the rape they had been subjected to at the hands of TMC goons after Mamata Banerjee won a landslide victory in Assembly Elections. During the violence itself, the police were woefully unavailable. They had refused to take action against the TMC goons. OpIndia had spoken to one such victim who was gang-raped in front of her father by goons who demanded “Hindu women” specifically. While she came on record, there were several who could not. First, they were already in fear. Second, they knew that they had to live and survive in the very area where even the police would protect the goons who tormented them. Having no avenue to safeguard themselves, the victims refused to come on record and file complaints. As such, those stories would forever remain buried because, without any evidence or victim testimony, it would be impossible to report.

Women from Sandeshkhali are narrating horror stories. ‘They violate women they pick night after night, release her only when they are “satisfied”, one said narrating the terror of TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan and his men. This is what I had said post poll violence. Nothing changes pic.twitter.com/xzMdVpU0Q5

— Nupur J Sharma (@UnSubtleDesi) February 10, 2024

Unfortunately, it would seem that the women of Sandeshkhali are stuck in a precarious situation where their tormentors are now in charge of ensuring justice is dispensed to them – a proposition that will have expected conclusions.

If one could venture a guess, one could say that at the end of this “investigation” by the West Bengal police, the only point that the TMC would harp on is that no incident of rape was reported by the Sandeshkhali women and therefore, any conversation around the plight of these women, who have spoken about their sexual exploitation on camera, was a political gimmick against Mamata Banerjee. The politicking would take precedence and the women would be left to fend for themselves. At the end of it all, unless there is a comprehensive strategy to rescue the women of Sandeshkhali and ensure their safety, the sexual exploitation of these Hindu women is bound to turn into yet another story – forgotten and relegated to one of those unfinished tales of the reign of terror unleashed in West Bengal.