Things are not looking up for the West Bengal BJP after Nilanjan Roy, its candidate from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, was accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl.
The West Bengal police were asked by the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights to arrest Roy after the allegations went public. However, he has not been arrested yet.
The incident allegedly took place on April 26 when the 16-year-old girl had visited Roy. The minor's father filed a case under the POCSO Act against Roy at the Falta police station and when no action was taken, he approached the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
"We received a complaint. The victim is a minor. Her father lodged a complaint with the police. Though they registered a case and recorded the statement of the victim under Section 164, the accused was not arrested. We have asked the police to immediately arrest the accused," the Commission's chairperson, Ananya Chatterjee told The Indian Express.
The Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that the accusations were fictitious and false and that it is a conspiracy by Trinamool Congress "to defame the party leader ahead of the elections".
West Bengal's BJP vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar has released a statement. "The false and fictitious complaint was filed against Nilanjan Roy in Falta PS, as a conspiracy to defame him before the election. Police could not find any prima facie case or any factual support behind the fictitious complaint," the statement said.
"Then the heads behind this conspiracy went to the West Bengal State Commission for Protection of Child Rights – which is full of stooges of Mamata Banerjee. No one should miss out that Commission members like Prasun Bhowmik & June Maliya are regular campaigners of Trinamool Congress."
"The whole matter stinks of a deep-rooted conspiracy to defame and malign the BJP candidate in Diamond Harbour – where TMC candidate is Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee. Facing the imminent defeat of TMC in the election, which to be held on 19 May, this reckless conspiracy has been launched, just to defame the BJP candidate," he added.
Roy will be standing against Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
