A woman who accused expelled CPI (M) parliamentarian Ritabrata Banerjee of cohabiting with her on the pretext of marriage on Tuesday lodged a police complaint against him and he in turn hit back by filing a complaint against her.
"I have come to lodge a complaint against him and will meet the Superintendent of Police," the woman said. In a social media post, she had earlier claimed the local police had refused to record her complaint.
"He promised to marry me and gave me tickets to come to his 104 South Avenue flat (in Delhi). We had physical relationship... he is now completely denying it (promise to marry her). He gave me Rs 2.5 lakh a couple of days back as compensation for having physical relations with him," the woman said.
Banerjee claimed the woman had made the accusations against him to "malign my reputation as I did not yield to her demand for Rs 50 lakh".
In his complaint at the Garfa police station in Kolkata, he said: "... she threatened to cause harm to my life and career. I strongly apprehend such malicious acts of her are politically motivated and backed by influential political persons to cause harm to my life, property, career and malign my reputation in society."
He also uploaded on Twitter a few screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation he purportedly had with the woman, during which "she asked for Rs 50 lakh for not filing an FIR".
"Hard Facts. 'Manufactured Lies' will be combated. Will not succumb to "politically aided" threats," he said in his Twitter handle.
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According to Banerjee, the woman "portrayed and represented herself" to be a hapless woman in urgent need of a loan to pursue education abroad.
Banerjee claimed he helped her secure a loan from a Balurghat branch of the State Bank of India but she continued to make repeated monetary demands.
"I was ... lured to meet her material demands till I realised her demands were boundless... she informed me she was suffering from lymphoma and again demanded money for her treatment. Due to her threat, I was compelled to make a payment of Rs 2.25 lakhs on July 20," the Rajya Sabha MP said in his complaint.
The woman, however, said his claims were false.
Banerjee was shown the door by the Communist Party of India-Marxist last month after an internal inquiry found him "outright guilty" on four charges, including "moral degeneration in relation to women" and "serious inconsistencies between his income and expenditure".
The CPI-M also charged him with grave "anti-party activities" as he "persistently continued to malign the party image by various means" and refused to change himself despite the party trying its best to help him rectify.
--IANS
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