A pregnant relative of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the panchayat polls was allegedly raped in West Bengal's Nadia district, police said on Monday, 30 April.
The BJP pointed fingers at the Trinamool Congress (TMC), alleging that the workers of the ruling party had committed the crime to teach a lesson to the opposition candidates for daring to contest the polls.
The TMC dismissed the allegation as baseless.
The incident occurred in Shantipur of Nadia district on the night of Sunday, 29 April. The sister-in-law of the victim is contesting the gram panchayat polls on a BJP ticket.
According to the family members of the victim, the goons of the ruling party were threatening them to withdraw the nomination for the last few days.
The leader told ANI that before the incident, which took place on Sunday, her husband was also kidnapped on Saturday, 28 April in a bid to pressure her to withdraw her nomination from the polls.
He, however, was released later on.
"After my husband was released a group of men entered our home and beat my mother at 2 am (on Sunday). They then sexually assaulted my sister-in-law, who was six-month pregnant. She was beaten black and blue and kicked in her stomach," the BJP candidate further said.
The victim was taken to a local hospital and subsequently, referred to a hospital in Kolkata, where she is battling for life, the family member added.
Nadia Additional Superintendent of Police, Rural, Toushif Ali Ajhar said, "We have received a complaint and initiated an investigation, but no one has been arrested."
Senior BJP leader of Nadia district Jagannath Sarkar accused the TMC of threatening the opposition candidates and alleged that the incident was to terrorise the people. TMC Nadia district president Gouri Shankar Dutta claimed that the allegations were "completely baseless".
In Kolkata, state BJP Mahila Morcha president Locket Chatterjee visited the victim at the hospital.
At the state-run NRS hospital, a scuffle broke out between the police and the BJP Mahila Morcha supporters as the securitymen stopped the saffron party activists from entering the hospital premises as it might create problems for the other patients.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
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