Two women in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district have accused a local BJP leader of physical abuse and sexual harrassment. The BJP leader from Basirhat has denied the allegations against him.

Kalyani Ruidas and Soma Ruidas, residents of Gopalpur village in Basirhat, have complained that BJP leader, Toofan Ruidas, had blocked their job cards.

On being asked to hand over the cards, Toofan allegedly harrassed both the women and tried to sexually assault them. They suffered serious injuries and had to be admitted at the local Haria Gramin Hospital, reported Bengali portal The Wall.

Other than Toofan, Kalyani and Soma have also accused his associates Bittu Das, Suman Das and Shukdev Das. They lodged a complaint at the Haroa Police Station against all of them.

Meanwhile, the BJP leader has denied all the allegations against him and claimed that it was a woman of his family who was assaulted by Soma and Kalyani’s kins.

Toofan said that Kalyani and Soma conspired to attack his family member. He has lodged a complaint against them at the Haroa Police Station as well.

After hearing both sides and taking cognizance of their complaints, the local police has started their investigation. The police is looking to figure if the incident has any political aspects or it escalated solely from the job card issue.

Meanwhile, the Basirhat region was on the news for political violence last month when a local BJP leader had succumbed to injuries sustained during clashes with TMC workers.

BJP’s deputy secretary of booth number 234 in Hingalganj Rabindranath Mondal was allegedly attacked by a group of TMC supporters.

Reportedly on October 12, BJP held a public meeting in the area that was not allowed by the local police. TMC had followed it up with rally on the next day.

It was at the end of TMC’s rally when violence had erupted, injuring Mondal and six others. All of them were taken to local municipality hospital in Basirhat.

With Mondal’s condition not improving, he was first transferred to the Nil Ratan Sarkar Hospital in Kolkata before being moved to the SSK Hospital, where he breathed his last on Monday night.

A local TMC leader Dinabandhu Koyal was also heavily attacked in Hingalganj area in the aftermath of the rally. The ruling party has alleged that Koyal was beaten up by miscreants backed by BJP iron rod and sticks, making him unconscious.