Continuing his attack on the Mamata Banerjee Government for “perpetrating atrocities on the poor people, including women” of the State of Bengal, Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari said on Sunday that Sandeshkhali was just a trailer and that many more regions would rise up in revolt in the times to come.
“Sandeshkhali has just started showing the way like Nandigram did in 2009 and 2011… you will see that in days to come areas like Jeliakhali, Nyajat, Tushkhali, Hingalganj, and neighboring regions, and then the villages of entire Bengal will rise up in revolt… against the oppression of Mamata and her army of goons led by the likes of Sheikh Shahjahan, who have not only grabbed the lands of the people but also sexually assaulted their women and thrown their men behind bars when they protested,” Adhikari said on Sunday, reminding how year after year villagers were not allowed to vote by the TMC goons.
“I can show you how the people of Gosaba, Sandeshkhali, Basanti, Canning Hingalganj, Diamond Harbour have not been allowed to vote… mostly the Hindus of these areas have been prevented from voting by the goons of Mamata … the people of Sandeshkhali have openly complained how they have not voted after 2011… now the time of reckoning has come… the people will take revenge for all the sins that have been committed against them… they have united and risen up in revolt,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a related development, a Central fact-finding team of former bureaucrats and judges was prevented from entering Sandeshkhali on Sunday, even as the island continued to simmer with women coming out of their houses in large numbers, demanding the arrest of local TMC leader and district board member Shahjahan.
Sources said six members of the fact-finding team, led by former Chief Justice of the Patna High Court L Narasimha Reddy, were stopped by the police at the Bhojerhat area, about 50 km from the Sandeshkhali ferry ghat. The police cited the imposition of Section 144 of the CrPC, refusing them entry into the area.
When the team members attempted to break the police cordon, four of them - Justice Reddy, Raj Pal Singh, Charu Wali Khanna, and Bhavna Bajaj - were taken into preventive custody for alleged breach of peace before being released at the Lalbazar police headquarters in Kolkata.
“We were visiting Sandeshkhali, but they stopped us... Police have purposely stopped us and are creating problems for the common people. Police are not letting us meet the victims of Sandeshkhali,” Charu Wali Khanna said.
Justice Reddy wanted to know “what the police are trying to hide from the rest of the world… what has happened and what has been happening there at Sandeshkhali that the world should not see… there is something seriously wrong here in Bengal.”
