Sandeshkhali woman drops rape complaint against TMC leaders, blames BJP

One of the three women from Sandeshkhali who had accused local TMC leaders of rape withdrew her complaint.

According to the Times of India newspaper, the woman on May 8 claimed that she faced no such assault and that local BJP leaders forced her to sign a blank paper, which was to be a false complaint.

The woman has filed fresh a complaint at the Sandeshkhali police station saying that she has been facing threats and social ostracism ever since she decided to drop her false complaint.

She further claimed that local BJP leaders are engineering the social boycott of her family.

"They asked for my signature on the pretext of enlisting my name for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Later, they took me to the police station to lodge a complaint of sexual abuse. There was no sexual assault on me inside the Trinamool office. I was never forced to go to the party office late at night," she was quoted as saying.

The woman's claims marks a major u-turn to the whole Sandeshkhali row, in which the BJP has been repeatedly targetting the ruling Mamata Banerjee government.

The twist comes three days after a purported sting showed Gangadhar Koyal, a BJP mandal president in Sandeshkhali block II, claiming that no rape or sexual harassment took place and that the complaints were fieled at the behest of Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari.

The TMC released a 33-minute video that focused on Sandeshkhali Block-II BJP Mandal President Gangadhar Koyal.

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