BJP demands arrest of Trinamool MP who threatened rape

Slamming Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Tapas Pal's controversial comments allegedly threatening to kill Communist Party of India-Marxist workers and have their women raped, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded that the leader be put "behind bars", saying he has "no right" to be in any political party.

BJP's national vice-president Laxmi Kant Chawla has shot off a letter to the TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stating that leaders like Pal should not be a part of any political entity and be put behind bars.

"It has come to the public notice that your party MP Tapas Pal talked about shooting, beating and raping women. The matter obviously has brought you embarrassment and ridicule. We request you to expel the leader from the party and send him behind bars for making such insensitive comments against women," the letter said.

Chawla reiterated that Pal has "no right" to be in the party and the TMC chief being a woman herself should immediately put the leader behind bars.

Pal's comment, which went viral on a vernacular television news channel on Monday, had quoted him saying, "If any CPI-M man is present here. Listen to me. If you ever touch any Trinamool Congress worker or their families at Choumaha, you have to pay for this. Don't try to act smart with me. I am smarter than you..."

"... Earlier, you guys have bullied me on various occasions. If you insult the mothers and daughters of Trinamool workers, then I won't spare you. I will let loose my boys in your homes and they will commit rape. I will teach each of you a lesson," the MP had warned.

Pal, however, denied that he spoke about rape. "What I said was I will tell my workers to 'raid'."

Demanding the immediate removal Pal from Lok Sabha membership over his controversial remarks, the West Bengal BJP said the party will request the Speaker to see whether an MP like Pal has diminished the honour of the House.

"We would send a CD of the speech by Tapas Pal to the Lok Sabha Speaker and request her to see whether an MP like Pal, who had made such derogatory and obscene comments, diminished the honour of the Lok Sabha," state BJP president Rahul Sinha said.

He demanded that the Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also sack Pal from his Lok Sabha membership. "It seems the entire Trinamool Congress has entered in a competition to outrun each other in making derogatory comments and Tapas Pal is the latest addition to the list," Sinha said.

The BJP leader said TMC party leaders were only following the line shown by their leadership. "The incidents of crime against women are on rise in Bengal and leaders of the ruling party are making such derogatory and provocative statements. It is a shame," said Sinha.

Meanwhile, Jaya Sarkar, a member of BJP Mahila Morcha, filed an FIR against Pal in the Nakashipara police station in Nadia, the district which houses Krishnagar LS seat from where he won the elections.

Image: Trinamool MP Tapas Pal