Old video made viral to malign Bengal: CM
Kolkata: Before leaving for Mumbai to attend the wedding ceremony of Mukesh Ambani’s son and the scheduled meetings with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused BJP and a section of media of trying to create a negative impact upon the voters by making an old video viral ahead of the by-elections in four Assembly constituencies on Wednesday.
“I am going to Mumbai as Mukesh Ambani’s son is getting married. I might not have gone but since Mukesh ji, his son and Neeta ji requested me repeatedly I decided to go. Mukesh Ambani had also attended the Bengal Global Business Summit multiple times upon Bengal’s invitation at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre,” she told reporters at Kolkata airport before leaving for Mumbai.
Banerjee added that she will also meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
She has already fixed an appointment with Uddhav Thackeray on Friday for “political talks” since they haven’t met since the Lok Sabha elections. “I will also go to Sharad Ji’s place and have made an appointment to meet him as well. Akhilesh is also coming tomorrow and I could meet him as well. I will return the day after tomorrow (Saturday)” she said.
Commenting on the viral video, she said: “The video was made viral 72 hours before the elections with the plan to damage Trinamool’s prospects in the by-elections and to malign the state’s reputation.” She was alluding to the video of a mob assault at Ariadaha Taltala Sporting Club in North 24-Parganas.
“It was an incident of March 2021 and it took place when BJP ‘s Arjun Singh was the local MP. Those who were involved in the incident are presently in prison. 29 persons were arrested,” she added.
She alleged that an old incident was made viral with malafide intention, However, the action taken by the police is not being telecasted.
She claimed that some media houses were biased towards the BJP due to the pressure of potential CBI-ED raids and called on the media to verify facts with the police before broadcasting news.
Banerjee also warned of possible legal action if the media continued with purportedly misleading coverage.
Chief Minister’s chief advisor Alapan Bandyopadhyay said that the accused Jayanta Singh has several criminal cases pending against him and was arrested at least five times since 2016 in connection with various criminal activities since 2016.
“The alleged sexual assault was not against any female but a male person. A section of the media has been distorting the sexual identity of the victim. The state is concerned with such false propaganda,” Bandyopadhyay told reporters with ADG (Law and Order) Manoj Verma by his side.
When the video went viral, strongman Jayant Singh was behind bars. The Barrackpore Police Commissionerate has taken suo moto cognizance and has already arrested seven associates of Singh. One Laltu, a close aide of Singh, was also nabbed on Thursday morning.