West Bengal: Protest in Sandeshkhali following recent assault on woman

North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) [India], May 16 (ANI): Women of the Battala area near Sandeshkhali in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas on Thursday staged a protest demanding the arrest of the culprits involved in the recent assault on a woman in Sandeshkhali.
According to reports, three individuals recently attempted to abduct a woman in the Sandeshkhali area at night and tried to assault her.
The protesters raised slogans and demanded to arrest the culprits in the recent incident of an alleged attempt to rape a woman.
The local women of Battala told ANI that they were not safe and were unable to sleep at night.
Bhabani Das, a local resident from the Battala area near Sandeshkhali, accused TMC goons of the incidents.
"We are not safe here. We have been continuously protesting against the Sandeshkhali incident for a long time, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee didn't visit here to take stock of the situation. A few incidents happened in the Sandeshkhali area and TMC goons are threatening us. We demand that the culprits should be booked and central forces should be deployed here to protect us," she said.
On the other hand, Subhankar Sardar said that the TMC goons are involved in this crime. He added that local women today staged a protest demanding stern action against the culprits.
Sujoy Das, another resident of the Battala area, told ANI that the TMC goons have abducted a few women from this area and allegedly did wrong things with them.
"We want justice and the culprits should be booked. The women and girls of this area are not safe," Sujoy Das said.
Meanwhile, police on Thursday brought the victim woman to a local court in Basirhat to record her statement before the magistrate.
Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district started hitting the headlines in February this year when villagers, mostly women, came out on the streets against the ruling TMC and Shahjahan, accusing the strongman and his aides of perpetrating gross excesses and atrocities on them while also gobbling up their land. Multiple women on the island accused Shajahan and his aides of "land-grab and sexual assault" under coercion.
Later on May 4, a video of a sting operation surfaced, stirring up fresh controversy in Sandeshkhali. The sting video was broadcast by a local television channel.
In the alleged video, purportedly, a BJP Mandal (booth) president named Gangadhar Koyal is heard saying that Sandeshkhali women, who weren't sexually assaulted, were projected as 'rape' victims at the behest of the leader of the opposition.
Claiming that Suvendu 'helped' him get this done, the person in the video said that the former told him that the TMC's strongmen in the area wouldn't be arrested unless he is falsely implicated in a 'rape case.' However, the news channel that broke the alleged sting operation did not check the veracity of the clip.
Shahjahan, the key Sandeshkhali accused, is currently behind bars in connection with the attack on a team of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) while it was in the process of raiding his residence in connection with the alleged ration scam. (ANI)