PM Modi meets Sandeshkhali victims in Bengal

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 6

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met the victims of Sandeshkhali violence at the hands of TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan who has allegedly perpetrated a criminal web of land grab and sexual assault in the area.

“The victims put forward their ordeal and PM heard them patiently like a father figure. The victims were very emotional with the fact that PM understood their pain,” BJP sources said even as the party attacked chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal for “shamelessly shielding Shahjahan Sheikh.”

Union urban development minister Hardeep Puri speaking in the national capital said it was unprecedented and shameful that the state government should move the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court order to transfer the Sandeshkhal matter for probe to the CBI.

“The accused has not moved court. The state government has. This is condemnable and shameful. Is the state government encouraging sexual assault for political gains?” asked Puri.

He also questioned the Bengal government compulsion behind shielding Shahjahan Sheikh despite “mounting evidence of his crimes against women and court orders in the matter.”

In Bengal, PM Modi said the Sandeshkhali violence will resonate across the state.

The BJP has spun the issue into a major poll plank against the ruling TMC of Bengal, with the Lok Sabha elections due any time now.

The BJP had won 17 Lok Sabha seats out of 42 in Bengal in 2019. This year the BJP is eyeing major gains in the state.