The Kolkata Police on Friday lodged a First Information Report against West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party chief Dilip Ghosh for making derogatory remarks about a woman protesting against the amendments to the Citizenship Act, PTI reported.
The woman, identified as Sudeshna Dutta Gupta, claimed she was heckled and verbally abused by BJP members at a rally on Thursday. She added that the men also snatched her “No CAA, No NRC” poster and tore it.
The Bengal BJP president later told journalists that Gupta was lucky that “nothing more was done to her”. “She should thank her stars that she was only heckled and nothing else was done to her,” Ghosh said. “Why do they [anti-CAA protestors] always come to our rallies to protest? They can go to other events. We have tolerated enough and won’t put up with any such nuisance again.”
The post graduate student filed a complaint at the Patuli police station. Gupta referred to remarks made by Ghosh to the media, and said she felt traumatised and feared for her life. She also alleged that Ghosh made “sexual remarks and showed murderous intent”.
“The women in our country are not safe,” the student added. “Every 22 minutes, a woman is raped in India. I am not surprised by Ghosh’s comment.”
Ghosh has been booked for sexual harassment, insult to modesty of women, criminal intimidation and common intention, The Indian Express reported citing police source. A senior police officer said the matter was being investigated.
The Opposition criticised Ghosh’s comments. Senior Congress leader Manoj Chakraborty said he should “publicly apologise” for his statements. Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Samik Lahiri asked him to refrain from making such comments. “This reflects both his and his party’s sadistic and perverted mindset,” he added.
Earlier this week, Ghosh had wondered why nobody had died during the protests against the Citizenship Act at Shaheen Bagh in New Delhi, despite very cold weather.
He has also made similar controversial remarks in the recent past. On January 12, Ghosh threatened to shoot anti-citizenship law protestors who damaged public property, just like in Uttar Pradesh. Ghosh criticised the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal “for not opening fire and ordering lathicharge” on Citizenship Act protestors who vandalised railway tracks, trains and other public property last month.
On January 19, the West Bengal BJP chief warned that people supporting undocumented immigrants would be sent back to Bangladesh along with “lungi-clad infiltrators”. The lungi is a garment worn around the waist in South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, and was a derogatory reference to Muslims.
The Citizenship Amendment Act provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. The Act has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims.
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