Sandeshkhali Row: BJP’s Piyali Das, Accused Of Manipulating Woman To Sign Blank Paper, Gets Bail

The Calcutta High Court granted bail to BJP worker Piyali Das who is accused of getting a woman from the Sandeshkhali enclave in North 24 Parganas district to sign on a blank paper and latter fill it up will complaints of sexual abuse against TMC leaders.

Sandeshkhali Row: Piyali Das, a BJP worker who is accused of manipulating a woman in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali to sign a blank paper and allegedly filled it up with allegations of sexual assault against TMC leaders, was Friday granted bail by the Calcutta High Court.

Justice Jay Sengupta of the Calcutta High Court granted bail to Piyali Das, three days after she surrendered before a lower court in a criminal case lodged against her for allegedly getting a woman from the Sandeshkhali enclave in North 24 Parganas district to sign on a blank paper and latter fill it up will complaints of sexual abuse against the leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Justice Sengupta also directed that she be released from jail on personal bond forthwith.

Earlier, after Das’s surrender on May 14, her bail prayer was rejected by the additional chief judicial magistrate of Basirhat sub-divisional court which remanded her to eight days’ judicial custody.

The BJP worker later moved the Calcutta High Court seeking bail, which was opposed by the West Bengal government.

Advocate Rajdeep Majumder submitted before the court that IPC 195A (forcing a person to give false evidence), a non-bailable section, was added against her by the police after she surrendered before the lower court.

The court directed that a final report on the investigation in the case lodged against Das could not be submitted without its permission.

The matter will be taken up for hearing again on June 19.

‘Illegally arrested’

Meanwhile, reacting to the Das’s successful bail plea, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, alleged that the saffron party worker was “illegally arrested by Mamata Police”.

“Today the Mamata Police received a tight slap on their face at the Hon’ble Calcutta High Court.
The desperate manipulation by SP Basirhat; Hossain Mehedi Rehman and SDPO Minakhan; Aminul Islam Khan, to help the TMC Party get reprieve from the heinous crimes of Sandeshkhali, now stands exposed,” Adhikari said in a post on X.

He also alleged that section 195A of the Indian Penal Code was illegally added by the West Bengal Police and she was taken into custody when she went to surrender under the impression of the case being bailable.

Sandeshkhali unrest

The Sandeshkhali enclave in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district witnessed widespread protests in February this year after allegations of rampant sexual atrocities on women and land grabbing by TMC leaders, including the prime accused, Shahjahan Sheikh, surfaced.

A large number of women in Sandeshkhali had accused TMC strongman Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters of “land-grab and sexually assaulting” them under coercion.

Following the attack on ED officials, Sheikh was on the run for 55 days before he was arrested by a special team of the West Bengal Police last month

Shahjahan, the key Sandeshkhali accused, is currently behind bars in connection with the attack on a team of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) while it was in the process of raiding his residence in connection with the alleged ration scam.

(With inputs from agencies)

(With inputs from agencies)