Trinamul Congress MP Saugata Roy has said a single crime against women in Bengal is shameful as the chief minister herself is a woman.

The comment from the veteran politician on Thursday was lapped up by Opposition parties as they sharpened their attack on the Mamata Banerjee government over law and order in the state.

“All are worried about incidents of atrocities on women. There should be a zero-tolerance in this regard. If any such incident happens, stern action should be taken. It is shameful for all of us if a single such incident happens in a state where the chief minister herself is a lady.… I hope police and the administration would keep a strong vigil,” Roy said while attending the inauguration of Dakshineshwar police station under Barrackpore police commissionerate.

The Dum Dum MP’s comment came at a time when the ruling establishment was under attack from the Opposition over law-and-order issues like the Bogtui carnage in which several women and a child were burnt to death and the Hanskhali incident where a Class IX girl was gang-raped and died apparently after excessive bleeding. Her body was cremated allegedly by the accused men by keeping her father at gun point.

Both the cases are now being probed by the CBI following orders from Calcutta High Court. The drift of the investigations till now — like the arrest of Trinamul leaders and question marks over the role of police — have already given the Opposition a lot of ammunition to attack the Mamata government with.

State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said: “He (Roy) should go and make the chief minister understand how shameful all this is. The chief minister herself is being shameless and using filthy language against a sexual assault victim.”

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the state Congress president, prodded Roy into taking a sterner stand on the issue and come clean on his thoughts on the comments made by the chief minister on the Class IX girl at Hanskhali.

“If he is actually pained by all this, why is he still a part of that party then? Can he go and say the same things to the chief minister?” asked CPM central committee member Shamik Lahiri.

Although Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh didn’t want to comment on Roy’s statement and said the women were safest in Bengal, party insiders were upset with the veteran politician for creating an unnecessary controversy.

“Our party and most importantly, the chief minister, has already said the government has zero tolerance towards such incidents. Proper action was taken without looking at the political colour of the accused even before the CBI took over the probes. Saugata-da’s comments were absolutely unnecessary,” said a senior leader.

“Instead of making some general statements, which can be interpreted in multiple ways, he should have spoken about the condition of women in BJP-ruled states,” the leader said.

Sources in Trinamul have said this is not the first time Roy has embarrassed the party with his comments.

Roy had criticised widespread violence during elections to 108 civic bodies in February and said such incidents should have been avoided as it sent a wrong message to the people.

“He had been cautioned several times in the past, but he keeps embarrassing the party,” said a Trinamul source.

(Additional reporting by Arkamoy Dutta Majumdar)