Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a private meeting with five women from Sandeshkhali, all of them victims of atrocities allegedly perpetrated by supporters of Trinamul Congress strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, after addressing the BJP's Nari Shakti Vandan rally in Barasat on Wednesday.

At the end of his public meeting, at a secure enclosure behind the dais, the select group of women were led to Modi where he was waiting. "When we touched his feet, he said we were Durga for him. We pleaded with him to save us,” one of the five women who met the Prime Minister later told the media.

For almost three weeks, women in the riverine island of Sandeshkhali in another corner of North 24-Parganas, about 82 km and a few rivers away from Barasat, have been on the street against the alleged atrocities perpetrated by henchmen of Shahjahan who has since been arrested and also suspended from the Trinamul Congress.

“When we told the Prime Minister that we will carry on with our struggle, he said we had fought enough and now we should keep faith in him,” a victim said. “He assured us that no one will be able to lay even a finger on us.”

Officials from the PMO accompanying Modi on his visit to Bengal took down personal details of the women who went to meet him.

Shahjahan and his henchmen were accused of grabbing farmland and forcibly converting them into fisheries, assaulting women at will and also extortion. Shahjahan, a co-accused in the multi-crore ration distribution scam, was apprehended last week after being on the run for over 50 days.

While Modi was talking to some of the victims from the island, the state government was preoccupied with trying to stall the Calcutta High Court’s order to the state police to hand over the case and Shahjahan to the CBI.

The women of Sandeshkhali have said that they are determined to carry on with their fight for justice.

In all the three public meetings that Modi has addressed in different parts of south Bengalin the last six days, Sandeshkhali has been his sharpest weapon against the ruling Trinamul.

Earlier in the day, Sandehslkhali residents had complained that they were being obstructed from reaching the venue of the Prime Minister’s meeting by the local administration. Buses they were travelling in were stopped at several places and allowed to pass only after they protested.