Mamata Banerjee's migrant assault claim sparks fake video row; Delhi Police, BJP hit back

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in Birbhum’s Ilambazar on Tuesday, questioned the silence of the various national commissions on the alleged atrocities and harassment unleashed on Bengali-speaking migrant workers in the BJP-ruled states. Meanwhile, major controversy erupted after Delhi police refutes Banerjee’s assault claim on Bengali-speaking migrants in Delhi in a video, which was allegedly "fabricated".

Kanthi MP Soumendu Adhikari has filed a complaint with the cyber-crime branch of Delhi police against WB CM Mamata Banerjee for spreading a fake video.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Abhishek Dhania said in a press conference that the police had taken immediate cognizance of the video shared by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"The video is baseless and fabricated,” Dhania claimed. “Upon inquiry, we identified the woman as Sanjanu Parveen. During questioning, she claimed that on the night of July 26, four men in plain clothes posing as police personnel took her and her child to a isolated spot and demanded Rs 25,000. She claimed that she had paid the money," Dhania said. However, the DCP said a detailed investigation was undertaken and CCTV footage was analysed.

"Following questioning, the woman admitted that her relative, a political worker from Malda district, had asked her to make the video. The video was then circulated locally in Bengal, and it became viral on social media," the officer said. Delhi Police claimed that the footage was deliberately created to defame the Delhi Police.

Meanwhile, following call by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, around 800 migrant workers have returned to the state, Bengal police sources said. The Chief Minister has given a call to the migrant workers from West Bengal to return to Bengal and assured that her government would provide livelihood opportunities to these migrant workers and a scheme will be formulated.

“If the migrants return to Bengal, we will also provide them with free ration and free medical treatment by giving them Swasthya Sathi card. We will also arrange for the admission of their children to the schools,” the Chief Minister vowed.

Banerjee claimed that the national commissions send delegations to West Bengal on minor issues like lizard bites, but they remain silent when the Bengali-speaking people are getting harassed in other states or they even killed or water and electricity connections are disconnected at their homes.

The Chief Minister iterated that the Bengali-speaking migrant workers are being harassed in the BJP-ruled states. “At least ten detention camps have been set up at Gurugram in Haryana. In Assam, lakhs of people had been sent to detention camps. Now, there is an attempt to bring NRC to West Bengal under the garb of the SIR by the Election Commission of India,” the Chief Minister claimed.

Meanwhile, BJP Leader of Opposition (LoP) in state assembly Suvendu Adhikari said, “"For the last few days, Mamata Banerjee has been spreading canards and misinformation continuously for the last few days. On July 27, she posted that a Bengali speaking woman and a child had been beaten up. The great liar of our state. I would urge Delhi based Bengalis to lodge an FIR against Banerjee," Adhikari said.

“You are confusing between infiltrators and migrants. The infiltrators are those who entered from Myanmar to Bangladesh’s Coxbazar relief camp and spread in entire India by entering Bengal from Bangladesh and Nepal.” Adhikari directed Kanthi MP Soumendu Adhikari to lodge an FIR in the cyber crime department of Delhi Police.