‘Wanted to caution Malviya’: RSS’s Santanu Sinha on ‘sexual exploitation’ row

The RSS member from Bengal, Santanu Sinha, who is in the middle of a controversy regarding an allegation on social media accusing BJP’s IT cell in-charge, Amit Malviya, of sexual exploitation of women, has now denied making any such allegation. He has accused the Congress of spreading “fake propaganda” and called it the “nastiest” and “most corrupt political party”.

Congress calls for Malviya’s removal

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate had called for the removal of Malviya from his position in the BJP following Sinha’s allegations.

“He indulges in the sexual exploitation of women. Not just in 5-star hotels but also in BJP offices in West Bengal. The only thing we seek from the BJP is justice for women,” she said.

Shrinate said Malviya needed to be sacked from his post for an independent probe to be conducted.

Malviya sends legal notice

After the Congress called for his resignation, Malviya on June 10 sought an “unconditional apology” from Sinha for his “extremely offensive” post on Facebook. He sent Sinha a legal notice asking him to take down the “false and derogatory” post.

Malviya alleged ulterior motives and wrongful intent to malign and tarnish his image. He threatened to take legal action against Sinha if he failed to respond to the legal notice, and told Sinha to pay him ₹10 crores as civil damages for the mental harassment, agony, and loss of reputation caused to him by his Facebook post dated June 7, 2024.

Sinha denies making allegations

Sinha on Tuesday (June 11) claimed that in the post on his Facebook account, he had only expressed his fear that Malviya would be drawn into a “honey trap by unscrupulous leaders of the party to remain clinging to their post despite such a debacle in the recently-held election”.

“No corner in the post is there any whisper about sexual exploitation of women by Amit Malviya,” he said.

‘Congress spreading hate campaign’

In a post on Facebook, he wrote, “It is a great chagrin to me that the nastiest and most corrupt political party in the country, the Indian National Congress, being armed with a post in Bengali posted from my Facebook account, is spreading a hate campaign against Mr Amit Malviya and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).”

Sinha went on to say, “We have bitter experience of such honey trap during the tenure of Mr Kailash [Vijayvargiya], Mr Siddharth Nath Singh, Mr Pradip Joshi, and Mr Shibprasad….Sushri Mamata Banerjee several times threatened to bring out clips of the honey trap.”

‘Post was to caution Malviya’

“I want to give a clear message that the post was not aimed to malign Mr Malviya but as a caution not to get entangled in honey trap, which was first brought to light by Mr Tathagata Roy, ex-president of the state unit and former governor of Tripura with the phrase KAMINI KANCHAN,” wrote the RSS member.

“I, a Sangha Swayam Sevak, former State Secretary of ABVP and contestant in state Assembly election and in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election, do not want the Bharatiya Janata party and its office bearers get undermined in any manner by misinterpretation of my post,” he continued.

In conclusion, he wrote, “If my post hurts Mr Malviya and/or undermines my party for such misinterpretation and edited version, I do express my heartfelt sorrow for the same. Since I have not written anything untoward in my post, with the mission to malign anyone, I am not withdrawing the post, the bone of contention.”