Amit Malviya, Mohammed Salim booked for circulating Bengal public flogging video after victim lodges complaint

BJP IT cell head and Bengal co-observer Amit Malviya along with CPI (M) state secretary Mohammed Salim have been booked by the West Bengal police for circulating the video of public flogging in Chopra town of the state.

According to a report by The Indian Express, an FIR was filed in the matter based on a complaint by the victim woman visible in the video. The victim in her complaint said that she was filmed without her permission and later the video was circulated without her knowledge, causing her defamation and grief. She has urged the police to take action against Malviya and Salim and also asked to get her video deleted immediately.

"One of my videos has gone viral on social media. I have been defamed due to this. Therefore, it has become difficult for me to stay in society. I want proper legal action against those who are guilty and my video should be deleted immediately," she wrote in her complaint in Bengali, said The Indian Express report.

Based on this complaint, a case has been filed under sections 79 (insult to modesty of woman), 294 (obscenity), 356 (2) (defamation) and IT Act sections 66A (sending offensive messages through computer or other communication devices) 66E (capturing image of a person’s private area without consent), 67A (publishing material that contains sexually explicit acts or conduct in electronic form) of the new criminal law, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

After the FIR, BJP and CPI (M) have alleged that the victim was coerced into filing the complaint.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Salim wrote, "Andher Nagari Chaupat Raja, TMC’s SOP in such cases. Fake case against voice of protest. JCB gang and police work in tandem."

Malviya said that it is unlikely that the woman filed the complaint on her own accord and accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of "trying to fix political adversaries instead of getting justice for the victim."

"The video was all over Bengal media and several users had picked it up, even before it reached Delhi. It is unlikely that the woman has done so on her own accord because she is obviously oblivious of facts. She has been made to file this complaint because she has to live in TMC infested Chopra," he wrote on X.

The public flogging incident which made headlines last week, took place in Chopra town of Uttar Dinajpur district. The victim woman and a man, said to be in a extramarital relationship were beaten mercilessly by a purported local TMC leader called Tajimul Islam, popularly known as JCB in the area. Islam has been arrested by the police.