TMC-NCW spat over Sandeshkhali reaches EC

Kolkata: The Sandeshkhali videos and retraction of rape allegations by two of three “survivors” triggered a fresh row involving TMC and National Commission for Women (NCW), culminating in the latter writing to Election Commission about West Bengal’s governing party “compelling women to withdraw cases”.
The missive to EC came hours after TMC threatened to move the poll panel against NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma for allegedly “forcing and deceiving women from Sandeshkhali into filing fake rape complaints to malign Bengal”.
Four videos have emerged in the last few days, each suggesting that the rape allegations - or at least some of them - might have been concocted. A video from a purported sting in which BJP’s Sandeshkhali Block-II chief Gangadhar Koyal says the “Sandeshkhali movement” was MLA Suvendu Adhikari's brainchild is among them. There are two other videos, each showing a different “survivor” alleging she had been made to sign a blank sheet of paper, and an older clip featuring BJP's Basirhat candidate Rekha Patra telling a TV channel she suspected some of the "survivors" taken to Delhi to meet President Droupadi Murmu may have been "paid to impersonate".
At the TMC presser, the party demanded a police probe and criminal proceedings against the NCW chief for "misusing her chair" and being "one of the main conspirators" in the Sandeshkhali unrest.
Minister Shashi Panja said, "We will approach EC against the NCW chairperson, who coerced these women to file fake rape complaints. The BJP ecosystem started false stories for political agenda and then brought in various commissions. It is becoming clear now that these commissions were part of the conspiracy."
Sharma refuted the claims. In its letter to the EC, NCW alleged that TMC workers were "instilling fear in the minds of Sandeshkhali women and stopping them from coming forward with their complaints and potentially impacting the poll process.”