Sandeshkhali victims for intervention of Prez

New Delhi, March 15

Eleven victims of violence, including five women, from Sandeshkhali met President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday and submitted a memorandum seeking her intervention in the issue.

“We hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. We pray for your urgent intervention to safeguard the marginalised families from Sandeshkhali, West Bengal. The victims belong to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe community and have been subjected to severe oppression and injustice,” the memorandum stated.

Accompanying the victims, Partha Biswas, Director of the Centre for SC/ST Support and Research, said deployment of central forces in Sandeshkhali for the protection of the victims was one of their demands.

“The President heard us sympathetically. The victims are being identified and threatened. They (victims) are thinking what will happen to them when they go back to Sandeshkhali. We have demanded that central forces should be deployed there,” he said.

Narrating her ordeal, a victim said, “They (accused) used to take us in the night and made us prepare pitha (a sweet dish) while they used to drink. If we refused to go, our family members would be beaten up.”

Another victim said, “Even now our family members are being threatened.”

Biswas said Alamgir, brother of Shahjahan and an accused, had neither been arrested by the state police nor the CBI. “Sandeshkhali has a dense population of Dalits. In the past 10 years, their land has been grabbed and women sexually exploited. The administration, “in cahoots with the ruling party”, asked the victims to compromise with Shahjahan,” Biswas said.