Mamata Banerjee challenges Delhi Police over alleged assault on mother, migrant child

Mamata Banerjee

A day after the Delhi Police refuted Mamata Banerjee's allegation that officers had brutally beaten a child and her mother, members of a Bengali migrant worker’s family, in the national capital, the West Bengal CM has challenged the police to furnish details about the investigation.

On Sunday, Banerjee had posted a video on her X handle and made the allegation for the first time. In her address at a public meeting at Bolpur in Birbhum district on Monday, she reiterated the claim. Later on Monday evening, Delhi Police’s DCP (East), Abhishek Dhania, held a press conference to refute the allegation.

Challenging the Delhi Police on the issue, the Chief Minister said, “I had spoken about that child yesterday. They were taken to one police station after another. I had said this in the meeting yesterday. Check the record. I had said that they would be threatened. That is what happened. We will want them (the ‘affected’ people) to return. And it will be proven who is true and who is false.” She was addressing an administrative meeting at Illambazar in Birbhum on Tuesday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Abhishek Dhania on Monday said that the police took immediate cognizance of the video shared on platform 'X' by the West Bengal Chief Minister, where she claimed that the woman and her child were brutally assaulted by Delhi Police personnel.

On Tuesday, while Suvendu Adhikari addressed the media in Kolkata and showed a security camera footage recovered by the Delhi police, the chief minister stuck to her allegation while addressing an administrative meeting in Birbhum.

Bengal BJP unit president Samik Bhattacharya targeted the chief minister. “We all know she is a creative person, a painter, a poet and a writer. It is surprising that she composed such a weak script. The lies have been exposed,” said Bhattacharya.