The wife of a BJP leader in Sandeshkhali, who was seen in a “sting” video claiming women there had lodged complaints of sexual abuse in exchange for money, on Sunday said her husband was a victim of a conspiracy hatched by the Trinamool Congress.

In the video, BJP’s Sandeshkhali 2 mandal president Gangadhar Koyal purportedly said the women had lodged the complaints following the instructions of the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari.

“The Trinamool Congress hatched a conspiracy to malign my husband as he is a BJP leader here. He is a victim of dirty politics,” Bimala Koyal, an anganwadi worker, told The Telegraph.

An uneasy calm hung over the dusty island, around 75km from Calcutta, on Sunday. Most residents of Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas were reluctant to speak to the media. They apprehended that the video would again create chaos in the village, which had been on the boil for over two months, following an attack on a team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers on January 5. The attack was allegedly carried out by men close to the former Trinamul strongman in Sandeshkhali, Sheikh Shahjahan.

Bimala said Gangadhar had left home on Saturday afternoon following the instruction of senior BJP leaders after the video had gone viral. He did not return home until Sunday evening.

“We are poor villagers and everyone knows how they (Trinamool) tortured us. I heard two persons from Calcutta, who stayed here for several days, made this video that was somehow doctored to malign my husband,” added the 48-year-old woman, sitting in her thatched-roof hut in Sandeshkhali’s Darir Jungle area.

A section of the residents of Sandeshkhali is upset with Gangadhar.

“It was a movement of common people of Sandeshkhali against the atrocities on us by Sheikh Shahjahan and his cronies for years. The BJP leaders had extended their support to us and we welcomed them. How can Gangadhar claim that our mothers and sisters were paid for filing complaints?” asked Prakash Sardar, a mason and a BJP supporter.

Sardar said Gangadhar was liable to answer questions from the villagers once he returned. “We think either he (the BJP leader) said so for money or he was forced into such falsehood.... We are waiting for his return to know the actual reason,” he added.

On February 7, a group
of women in Sandeshkhali started protesting against Shahjahan and his aides, accusing them of grabbing their land and raping them for years.

“Everyone on this island knows how Shahjahan and his men ran a mafia raj. It was a movement of poor people of Sandeshkhali...,” said one of the protesters.

A few villagers said in private that there were indeed some doubts over the complaints of rape and sexual abuse. “In the case of sexual harassment or rape, it is the court that will have a final say,” said a villager.

However, there was near unanimity in the village about the other misdeeds of Shahjahan and his cronies.

“Our land was grabbed and the state government returned it to us after the arrest of Shahjahan. Is this not enough to prove that we were tortured?” asked a villager.

Rekha Patra, face of the Sandeshkhali protests who later became the BJP candidate from Basirhat, said on Sunday that Gangadhar was the victim of Trinamool’s
conspiracy.