A Christian woman in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district has alleged that a group of people associated with the Bajrang Dal assaulted and stripped her, and forcibly bathed her in front of others as part of a so-called “purification” ritual, as they sought to force her family and two other families into Hinduism during the annual festival Durga Puja.
NDTV reached out to Superintendent of Police Papiya Sultana for a response, but she did not reply. Opposition parties TMC (Mamata) and the Congress have demanded immediate action, though the ruling BJP was yet to respond to allegations of intentional inaction. She sought police protection for the families.
Police in Chandrakona finally booked at least 13 persons under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for attempt to murder and related crimes, as per the FIR, registered on the night of October 20 on the complaint by the woman, a resident of Patlapur. No arrests were made as of 6:30 pm, October 24. READ | No Automatic Backward Quota Benefits For Converts, Rules Supreme Court The complainant called the police after the group left on October 18, and some personnel came to the spot and heard her oral complaint, she said.
The complainant said that the three families were threatened that they would be “burnt alive” if they went to the police on October 18. She said she called the cops, but the families were terrorised by the group over the next two days as well, and some of the family members were taken to a Durga Puja pandal in nearby village Dingal, “where we were forced to perform specific religious rituals against our will”.
She said she lost consciousness after Ranjit Dolui, one of the accused, struck her on the head and below the ear. Others named in the FIR are Dilip Mishra, Bappaditya Chatterjee, Tarun Mondal, Arun Mondal, Madan Manna, Ajit Dolui, Purnima Das, Suchitra Patar, Monimoy Mukherjee, and Mithu Dolui. The victim has alleged that a group of people associated with Bajrang Dal came to her house on October 18.
“They created pressure on us to give up our faith in Lord Jesus Christ,” read her complaint. “When I was partially conscious, I realised that my clothes had been torn off and that Ranjit Dolui, Pacha Patra and Bapi Mondal had removed my saree,” the complaint, in Bengali, further read.
