In a shocking development, Santanu Sinha, who made sexual misconduct allegations against BJP social media head Amit Malviya and later apologised after receiving a defamation notice, was earlier seen outside the Trinamool Congress party office, as reported by some journalists.
Notably, on 12th June, News 18 journalist Pallavi Ghosh tweeted, “Now a twist in the allegations case against @amitmalviya – a picture of Santanu Sinha, who accused Amit Malviya and BJP Bengal leaders of sexual abuse outside TMC office has been released.”
Now a twist in the allegations case against @amitmalviya -a picture of Santanu Sinha, who accused Amit Malviya and BJP Bengal leaders of sexual abuse outside TMC office has been released .. pic.twitter.com/1cdBKly4H9
— pallavi ghosh (@_pallavighosh) June 12, 2024
Additionally, journalist Rohan Dua shared the pictures of Sinha outside the TMC office, where he was allegedly meeting with TMC leaders. In his post, Dua asked whether TMC colluded with Sinha to vilify its rival, Bharatiya Janata Party.
He wrote, “Santanu Sinha, who first made accusations against BJP National Information Technology department head Amit Malviya @amitmalviya before retracting them, has courted a row after his own photos with TMC leaders & visit to TMC office surface. Did TMC collude with him to villify BJP?”
Santanu Sinha, who first made accusations against BJP National Information Technology department head Amit Malviya @amitmalviya before retracting them, has courted a row after his own photos with TMC leaders & visit to TMC office surface. Did TMC collude with him to villify BJP? pic.twitter.com/hVXZUjkfEp
— Rohan Dua (@rohanduaT02) June 12, 2024
Sharing Sinha’s picture outside the TMC party office, several X users questioned whether TMC could be behind the conspiracy to malign the image of BJP leaders and if the ruling party orchestrated this to counter allegations made by local villagers and women in Sandeshkhali.
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya exposed Sandeshkhali issue.
— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) June 12, 2024
Santanu Sinha made baseless accusations against @amitmalviya.
Congress made big issue.
Amit Malviya sent defamation notice🚨
Santanu Sinha apologised‼️
Now,
photos of Santanu Sinha @ TMC office.
TMC behind it⁉️ pic.twitter.com/m0ehZdS06y
INDI alliance exposed!
— Unofficial Zoo Bear: LKFC (@JagatJananii) June 12, 2024
So called RSS Worker Santanu Sinha who imposed fake allegations on @amitmalviya spotted at TMC office.
INDI alliance created this whole conspiracy to distract people from Sandeshkhali. pic.twitter.com/HammsMCkSu
The current controversy erupted after Santanu Sinha made a Facebook post on 7th June in which he accused Amit Malviya and other senior leadership of the BJP of accepting sexual favours from leaders in West Bengal and in exchange providing them positions in the party. He accused West Bengal BJP leaders of sending women to Malviya and other senior leaders of BJP in 5-star hotels to secure the president’s posts.
These allegations were then used by Congress and Trinamool Congress to attack the BJP and Malviya. However, after Amit Malviya sent a legal notice of defamation to him, he retracted his statement. In another Facebook post on 11 June, Sinha claimed that he did not level sexual harassment allegations against Amit Malviya and that his Facebook post had been deliberately misinterpreted by the Indian National Congress.
However, he claimed that his post was to warn against getting entangled in a honey trap, not to target Malviya. The alleged RSS member, Sinha also said that he does not want BJP and its office bearers getting undermined in any manner by misinterpretation of his post. He added that as he didn’t write anything untoward in the post, he is not deleting it.
Consequently, after Sinha asserted that he is not deleting the post, Malviya announced on 12th June that he had decided to pursue criminal defamation proceedings against Sinha even after he retracted his allegations of sexual misconduct against the BJP leader. In a post on X, Amit Malviya said that the statement by Hindu Samhati President, Santanu Sinha retracting his allegations was qualified and not unequivocal.
Amit Malviya said in the statement, “The alleged post was defamatory, calculated and malicious. The wide dissemination by opposition parties has added to the defamation. As such, I have decided to pursue Criminal Defamation against Santanu Sinha, under appropriate sections of the IPC. Other civil remedies may also follow, as would be advised.”
Statement on slanderous post by Santanu Sinha, President Hindu Samhati, West Bengal. pic.twitter.com/AwGXGPH9Th
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 12, 2024
Malviya added how Sinha’s allegations were propagated by Congress and Trinamool Congress leaders.
Now in a shocking turn of events, Sinha’s picture outside the TMC office surfaced on social media, igniting a political storm.
It is pertinent to note that it is not the first time that questions have been raised over the collusion of Trinamool Congress with members of the Hindu Samhati. Incidentally, in 2018, both BJP and the Left had branded Hindu Samhati as the ‘Trinamool’s Hindutva wing’.
For those unversed, Hindu Samhati has grown rapidly in various parts of Bengal since its foundation in 2008. It was founded by Tapan Ghosh but he later quit the organisation accusing it of “lacking courage”.
Tapan Ghosh was a pracharak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in West Bengal. He had joined the RSS in 1975 but he left RSS over differences in the way of functioning of the organisation. He established Hindu Samhati, a Hindu nationalist organisation with the goal of protecting Bengali Hindus.
