'Not sexual exploitation, but honey trap,' RSS activist retracts allegations against BJP's Amit Malviya

Kolkata: Santanu Sinha, an RSS member and Kolkata-based lawyer, retracted the sexual exploitation allegations against BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Tuesday, a day after the latter filed a defamation lawsuit against him. In a Facebook post Sinha clarified that he did not directly accuse Malviya of sexual exploitation but rather hinted at the possibility of him being honey-trapped.

Issuing a public apology on Facebook, Sinha expressed that his intention was not to defame Malviya, but said that would not remove the original post as it was misinterpreted.

Malviya had demanded Rs 10 crore in damages for defamation from Sinha, who is a relative of BJP’s former national secretary Rahul Sinha. Malviya's legal notice, served on June 8, instructed Sinha to issue a public apology and delete the slanderous social media post within three days, failing which legal action would be initiated.

According to Malviya's legal notice, the widely circulated slanderous social media post had tarnished the BJP IT cell chief's reputation beyond West Bengal, impacting his image in the eyes of the public and causing him mental anguish. The notice emphasised that the allegations were baseless and intended to mislead the public, damaging Malviya's reputation.

Sinha's Facebook post from May 7, garnered attention from opposition parties, including Congress and Trinamool Congress. While the West Bengal BJP president dismissed the allegations as baseless and politically motivated, the Congress demanded Malviya's removal as the head of the BJP's IT department and called for an independent inquiry.

Full content of Sinha's Facebook post, as provided:

“It is a great chagrin to me that the nastiest and most corrupted political party of the country, the Indian National Congress, being armed with a post in Bengali posted from my Facebook account, is spreading hate campaign against Mr Amit Malaviya and the Bharatiya Janata Party, 

No corner in the post there is any whisper about sexual exploitation of women by Mr Amit Malaviya. Rather I have there expressed my fear if Mr Malviya will be drawn to honey trap by the unscrupulous leaders of the party to remain clung to their post despite such debacle in the recently held election. We have bitter experience of such honey trap during the tenure of Mr. Kailash Vijoyborgiya, Mr. Siddhartha Nath Sing, Mr. Pradip Joshi and Mr.  Shibprasad. To be noted that criminal case arising of that honey trap is still pending against Mr.  Kailash Vijoyborgiya, Mr. Pradip Joshi and Mr. Shibprasad. Sushri Mamata Banerjee several times threatened to bring out clips of the honey trap. 

But to my extreme astonishment, none from the State BJP has ever tried to know the purport of the post, but played a dubious role. A legal notice sent from the end of Mr. Malviya by his learned Advocate was circulated amongst media, purposely, with a view to create pressure upon me on the one hand, and on the other, to divert their responsibility of the debacle in last parliamentary election in West Bengal. Several press people told me that Mr. Jaganath Chattopadhyay, de-facto president of the state party, is the man behind circulating the legal notice [I have the audio clips which I will bring out when require]. However I am ready to contest cases, civil or criminal, as threatened in the said legal notice, if any, is initiated. 

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

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.

Be precise, Rahul is my cousin brother. He has been unnecessarily dragged into the controversy. He has no role to play in my Facebook post.

If my post hurts Mr. Malaviya and/or undermines my party for such misinterpretation and edited version, I do express my heart felt 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.”