Mukul Roy claimed he was named in the police complaint in an act of political vendetta
In West Bengal, politics is turning into a tangle with a sleazy twist.
A woman has filed a police complaint against BJP's newest leader in the state, Mukul Roy, and three others under five sections of the Indian Penal Code and one of them is non-bailable.
The 30-year-old woman says, on November 3, she received four phone calls threatening her to withdraw her complaint accusing expelled CPM lawmaker Ritabrata Banerjee of rape. Or else.
An angry Mukul Roy denied he knew the woman and claimed he was named in her police complaint in an act of political vendetta. Mr Roy joined the BJP on November 3 in Delhi. He came to Kolkata and went to the BJP office on November 6 and the police complaint was filed on the 7th.
"There is police raj going on in Bengal. They are politically afraid of me and what I can do," Mr Roy said. He is the big draw at a BJP public rally in Kolkata tomorrow.
Nowhere in her November 7 complaint filed at Balurghat police station does the woman say Mr Roy phoned her directly.
She says some anonymous callers and others she identified had warned her "Mukul Roy is very powerful and he can get you into real trouble" and that "Ritabrata is very close to Roy."
In October, the woman had filed an FIR accusing Mr Banerjee of promising her marriage, cohabiting with her and then dumping her. Two weeks before that, the CPM expelled Mr Banerjee for 'personal indiscretions'.
Mr Banerjee accused the woman of blackmailing him. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police took over the case, repeatedly summoned him but he showed up only on November 7 after he got anticipatory bail.
That same day, the woman filed the second FIR naming Mr Banerjee, his 'fiancee' Durba Sen, Mukul Roy and Dr Archana Mazumdar who is a resident of Balurghat and known to be a close associate of Mr Roy.
The police registered the woman's FIR under five sections of the Indian Penal Code. One of them, Section 506, dealing with criminal intimidation, is non-bailable.