Bengal child rights commission sends notice to BJP’s Amit Malviya

Jun 22, 2025 07:07 PM IST

Kolkata: The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights has served a show cause letter to Amit Malviya, head of the national information technology cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party, for posting a photograph of a minor girl after her unnatural death in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on June 16, a commission official said.

Targeting chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Malviya alleged in a social media post on June 19 that the girl was gangraped and murdered. He attached a photo in which the minor’s face was digitally blurred.

“The commission took suo motu cognizance of Malviya’s post because the minor could be easily identified despite an effort to digitally blur her face. This is a violation of the Juvenile Justice Act,” a commission official said requesting anonymity.

Malviya, a BJP national executive member and co-incharge of the party’s West Bengal unit, also alleged in his post that the incident had a communal angle.

He wrote: “…Mamata Banerjee’s governance has been an unmitigated disaster for women’s safety. Worse still, the administration is suppressing the incident, citing “communal sensitivity” — because the victim is Hindu and the accused are Muslim. This is not secularism. This is state-sponsored injustice…”

The West Bengal police issued a rebuttal on X on June 20, calling Malviya’s allegation a lie and stating that post mortem examination had revealed that the minor died after consuming poison and there was no evidence of sexual assault whatsoever.

“Lies Again! Efforts are being made from certain quarters to spread misinformation about the death of a minor girl four days back. Facts are, an unnatural death of a minor girl happened. The body was recovered from her house in observance of all formalities. Inquest and post mortem, under proper videography, was done to ascertain the cause of death. Based on the complaint by the mother of the deceased, FIR in Jibantala PS was also registered,” the state police said.

“The post mortem report reveals that there was no sexual assault whatsoever and the death was caused by consumption of unknown poison. Investigation is in progress. A criminal case is being started against the person who shared the photograph of the deceased minor girl on social media in violation of the Hon’ble Apex Court guidelines and also attempted to fuel communal disharmony,” the post added.

Malviya did not comment on his post and the commission’s show cause letter till Sunday afternoon.

Bengal BJP unit’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said: “Answers to all questions raised will be given in due time.”