After allegations of torture by some Trinamul Congress leaders on women in Sandeshkhali, a team of women police officers, headed by Soma Das Mitra, deputy inspector general (DIG) of police in the criminal investigation department (CID) visited the trouble-hit island in North 24-Parganas district on Tuesday to take stock of the situation there.
The team also includes officers like Debosmita Das, DIG special (STF), Charu Sharma, additional superintendent of police (SP) in-charge of Sundarbans, and Kakoli Ghosh, inspector-in-charge (IC), Baruipur.
They reached Sandeshkhali by a boat through Dhamakhali around 11am today and met local women at their doorsteps.
The aggrieved women had an emotional outburst when the members of the team wanted to know about grievances.
They narrated stories of how they were harassed allegedly by ruling Trinamul Congress leaders like Sheikh Shahjahan and his associates like Sibu Hazra and Uttam Sardar in the area for the past many years.
Many of these stories were unearthed after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), probing ration distribution scam in the state, were beaten up when they went to arrest Shahjahan at his Sandeshkhali residence more than one-and-a-half months ago. Shahjahan and Hazra are still absconding, while Sardar who was rearrested on Monday night, after being granted bail on the same day.
They demanded arrests of Shahjahan and his associates when the team met them in different areas of Sandeshkhali throughout the day.
The women have been regularly protesting in Sandeshkhali since Friday demanding arrest of the local Trinamul Congress leaders.
The women protestors also erupted in anger against police administrations for its failure to nab miscreants in the Sandeshkhali area.
The visiting women police officers took notes of the stories narrated by the women residing at the trouble-hit Sandeshkhali.
Governor C V Ananda Bose, who visited Sandeshkhali on Monday, also faced the wrath of villagers, mostly women. Mr Bose had cut short his Kerala trip to be with the affected villagers.
The villagers had destroyed a poultry farm and an animal husbandry unit reportedly owned by Hazra and Sardar respectively.