One more person has been arrested in the case of public flogging on a woman in Chopra in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal, police said on Wednesday.
According to reports, the arrested person identified as Amirul Islam alia Budhuwa, is an aide of Tajmul Haque alias JCB, the prime accused who is already in custody. Amirul was identified in the video where Tajmul was seen mercilessly assaulting a woman and a man. He is a resident of the Nakkati area in Lakhpur Gram Panchayat.
Amirul has been taken into custody and will be presented in Islampur court. However, Amirul has denied any role in the crime, claiming that he was only a spectator at the incident. But in the video, Amirul could be seen holding the stick used to assault the couple, while Tajmul ‘JCB’ was kicking them instead of using the sticks.
As per police, they are identifying everyone seen in the video, and more arrests will be made soon.
The police earlier arrested Tajmul Haque, alias JCB, who was seen beating up the victims in a purported video of the incident that had gone viral on social media. After the arrest, he was shifted from Chopra to Islampur for fear of attack on the police station by his supporters. While speaking about the matter, SP (Islampur police district) Jobi Thomas remarked, “If we kept him in Chopra, the thana could have been attacked. So for safety purposes, we brought him (Tajmul Haque) to Islampur.”
Tajmul Haque brutally assaulted a woman and a man during a so-called ‘arbitration meeting’ which he named ‘Insaf Sabha’ over an allegation of an ‘extramarital affair’. A large number of people were spectators to the flogging, and nobody protested to the brutal assault.
The incident drew protests by opposition BJP which accused the Trinamool Congress of implementing “Taliban rule” and “Sharia law” in West Bengal.
Earlier women MLAs of the West Bengal BJP protested outside the State Assembly after Speaker refused to permit a discussion on the issue in the Assembly.
“Our question to the Speaker is that if you have permitted the TMC to agitate, why would you not permit us? We are not agitating in support of Sheikh Shahjahan. We are agitating in support of the women of West Bengal and protesting against their oppression. This is not illegal. We had sought permission from the Speaker but we were not permitted. But we have to protest. So, we are here. Why is the Speaker playing a double standard game?,” Agnimitra Paul,BJP MLA, said while speaking to ANI.
The BJP alleged that Chopra MLA Hamidul Rahaman had ties with the accused, Tajmul Haque. The MLA has however denied the allegation and condemned the incident.
“We condemn the incident. But the woman also did wrong. She left her husband, son, and daughter and became an evil beast. There is some code and justice according to Muslim rashtra. However, we do agree that what happened was a bit extreme. Tajimul Haque is not one of our party members, but still, we are finding any connections at the group level,” Rahaman said.
