BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul on Monday alleged that the 34-year-old wife of a party worker had been gang-raped by Trinamul Congress goons late on Saturday night.

“This woman had suffered a heart attack a few days ago and lost her ability to speak. She was alone at her home on Saturday night when Trinamul goons attacked and raped her,” said Paul, who is also the chief of the Mahila Morcha’s Bengal unit.

Trinamul leader Arup Roy said: “The BJP is trying to do politics over this incident. The police are investigating. It is a condemnable incident. Law will take its own course. If the culprits belong to our party, we shall take action against them as well.”

The BJP MLA alleged that police had refused to lodge an FIR on the basis of the woman’s written complaint. “Police called her husband to the police station and tried to force him not to lodge the complaint,” Paul added.

However, the police registered an FIR on Sunday evening. Six local Trinamul leaders and workers, along with a few others, have been named in the FIR. The woman has been admitted to a local government hospital.

Two of the accused — Seikh Syed and Joynal Mallik — were arrested. Two other accused men — Kutubuddin Mallik and Debasish Rana — have been detained.

The BJP alleged that Kutubuddin and Debasish had initially been shown to be arrested, but they were not produced in court on Monday.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari visited the victim at the hospital on Monday evening.

BJP’s IT cell chief and co-minder for Bengal Amit Malviya took to Twitter to protest against the alleged gang-rape and hinted that the party would take up the issue before a larger audience. Malviya tweeted: “TMC is using rape as a political tool to silence opponents.”

BJP’s torch rally

The youth wing of the BJP organised a state-wide torch rally on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the Quit India Movement on Monday to protest against alleged atrocities on party workers after Assembly election results had been out.

Police, however, prevented the BJP from organising rallies at several places in the state citing Covid-19 protocol.

At least 17 BJP workers were arrested in Calcutta. The party’s state vice-president Raju Banerjee and others were arrested in Siliguri.