Kolkata: A Malda court has granted bail to the two women at the centre of the Malda viral video after they were arrested for rioting and on other charges in a separate case related to panchayat poll, amidst a slugfest between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress over violence against women in West Bengal.
The police had arrested three other women and two men Saturday for assaulting the duo — 45-year-old Habli Mandal and 48-year-old Fekiya Mandal — and a civic volunteer at a weekly market in Malda’s Bamangola area. The arrested persons were sent to five-day police custody in connection with the episode that took place 19 July.
The Mandals were booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing harm to public servant), 353 (assaulting public servant), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, as well as Section 3 (mischief by doing any act in respect to public property) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.
No theft charges were pressed against them.
The two were arrested on 19 July itself — the day they were thrashed and stripped — following which they were produced in a district court. They had been remanded in 14-day judicial custody but have now been granted bail.
The complaint in this case was related to rioting that took place 16 July at an area falling under the jurisdiction of Nalagola police station in Malda district.
ThePrint reached out to Malda district police chief Pradeep Kumar Yadav through calls and texts regarding the charges pressed against the two women. This report will be updated once a response is received.
BJP social media chief Amit Malviya had uploaded the clip on social media Saturday, claiming that two tribal women were stripped and tortured in Malda. Later, BJP president J.P. Nadda sent a five-member team to get a feedback on the atrocities being faced by the backward sections of the society in the backdrop of the Bengal panchayat poll violence.
Briefing the media Sunday, the Malda SP had said at least three women had lost their purses at a weekly market after withdrawing money and they suspected the involvement of the duo. Subsequently, the enraged women and bystanders thrashed and disrobed the two.
But Malda Uttar MP Khagen Murmu claimed the police were trying to brush the matter under the carpet by arresting the two victims. “The police can’t clarify why the women were arrested. We have reports that the women were made to sit in the police station for hours with torn clothes. They are trying to hush up the incident,” the BJP leader told ThePrint.
The ruling TMC has dismissed the opposition charges and termed it a “local issue”. “The incident is unfortunate. It is a local issue, not a political one. The police have taken steps and an investigation is on. Arrests have been made. The BJP is only trying to divert attention from the real issues in Manipur,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen told ThePrint.
This article has been updated to reflect the latest developments in the story.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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