Between December 2013 and February 2014, Muktir Chowk village near Amta in the State’s Howrah district saw a huge number of villagers fleeing the village. In a desperate bid to make inroads into Amta, a former bastion of the Left Front, activists of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) resorted to violence to coerce villagers to vote for the AITC in the then upcoming Lok Sabha poll.
The villagers were earlier not allowed to report any of the crimes, but they put up a strong fight and reported two alleged gang-rapes earlier in February.
Later, it was learnt that many more women in a neighbouring village were allegedly raped, but did not report the crime to the police, fearing more harassment by the AITC. Such incidents were rampant across the State since AITC came to power.
Documenting each reported incident of violence, the CPI (M) on Wednesday launched a list, compiling crimes that supporters of the CPI (M) and the Left Front were subjected to by the AITC and the Congress between May 14, 2011 and July 31, 2014.
According to the list, 159 persons were killed and 13 persons died due to abetment to suicide. As many as 24 women supporters of the Left parties, and 166 general women, were raped and 1,049 women physically assaulted. As many as 6,550 houses were ransacked, looted and burnt and 49,525 persons evicted.
While 172 false and concocted cases of arms recovery were registered, 7,685 persons were arrested in other fabricated cases. The Left Front will be launching protests from September in protest against such crimes and other issues.
AITC M.P. Ahmad Hasan Imran recently told The Hindu that the party chief was “looking into” these incidents. But the big question is whether AITC would really be able to provide security to the Left supporters in the run-up to the Assembly election in 2016.
The villagers of Muktir Chowk, however, are not optimistic.
“Of the nine arrested (for alleged rape), six were granted bail by the court a month ago but have been given orders not to enter our village.
While the rape survivors were provided police protection to enter the village, we live under constant fear," said a resident of the village on condition of anonymity.
