A group of 13 Sandeshkhali women who went to take part in the election campaign of the BJP’s Uluberia candidate, Arunuday Paul Chowdhury, was allegedly harassed and detained by the Howrah police late Monday night.

These women, who are residents of Sandeshkhali, are part of the BJP’s special squad of 300 women from the remote island campaigning across the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state to tell their tale of atrocities they faced by arrested Trinamool Congress strongman Sheikh Shahjahan and his cronies.

“It was around 12:30 am when a cop came to where we stayed and asked about our identity and reason for visiting Uluberia. After half an hour, a police team accompanied by a person forcibly dragged us from our rooms and took us away
to the local police station without explaining any reasons,” said one of the women in the team.

They alleged that a person, who was suspiciously a Trinamool leader, threatened them in front of the police that they would not be allowed to campaign in Howrah as they were outsiders.

“The police kept us inside a small room overnight and did not offer food or drinking water properly. It was complete harassment until we were released on Tuesday morning. They also made us sign on three pieces of paper before the advocates. They also seized our mobile phones and Aadhar cards and handed those over before releasing us from there,” she added.

The incident prompted the BJP leaders to agitate in front of the Uluberia police station, asking the cops about the reasons for which those poor women were harassed even at midnight.

All those women were later taken to the BJP’s Salt Lake state headquarters where they narrated their harassment by the police since Monday night.

“Detaining or arresting women at midnight is a violation of the law. The act of vengeance by the Bengal police proves how the Mamata Banerjee government is afraid of these poor women and using its force to deter them from telling their experience of torture to the people,” said Samik Bhattacharya, the BJP’s chief spokesperson and a Rajya Sabha MP.

The police, however, said the women were neither detained nor arrested as they were sheltered at Uluberia women’s police station.