Aparna Sen, the Indian filmmaker, has been sent a legal notice by a West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anirban Ganguly seeking an unconditional apology for her alleged “derogatory” statement on Border Security Force (BSF) personnel.
Ganguly shared the legal notice on Twitter on Thursday. It mentions that in a press conference at Kolkata on Tuesday, Sen had labelled the BSF ‘murderers’ and ‘rapists’.
“Your verbatim was ‘Aai barey aaro barano hochche! Ekta militarisation hochche! Kendriya sarkar okhane aro BSF – jano erai jothesto not. Jara hotya korchen, dharshan korchen tarai jano jothesto not, aro barachchen (They are increasing it more. There is a militarisation that is happening. The central government is increasing the BSF – as if these were not enough – the ones who were murdering and raping),” the notice adds.
While speaking at a press conference at the Kolkata Press Club, Sen spoke about the atrocities of the BSF on the locals residing at the border and said that it “shocks” her still.
Sen also mentioned the state government’s resolution to protest the central government’s recent decision to enhance the powers and jurisdiction of the BSF at the West Bengal and Assam borders.
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Inspector General of BSF North Bengal Ravi Gandhi told ANI that per the three notifications issued by the government of India on October 11, BSF is required to increase its area of the jurisdiction from 15 km to 50 km, under three acts – CRPC 1973, Passport (Entry to India) Act, 1920, and Passports Act, 1967.
While the North Bengal BSF lauded the decision, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that like Punjab, they are also protesting against the central government’s decision to increase search and arrest jurisdiction of the BSF in border states.
“They [the locals] are living in the wired fence without any fault of theirs. Just because two countries exchanged citizens, they are at fault?” questioned Sen at the conference.