West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that West Bengal is the only State where women are safe. Her statement comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Trinamool Congress over the raging Sandeshkhali issue.

Addressing the TMC Mahila Wing Rally in Kolkata, she responded to the BJP leaders who said that women are being tortured in Bengal saying, women are the safest in Bengal.

Hitting out at PM Modi, Banerjee asked where was he when women were paraded naked in Manipur and when a woman was raped and her body forcibly cremated in Hathras. She reminded Bilkis Bano’s case too.

TMC supremo also reacted on the former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijt Gangopadhyay joining the BJP. A BJP babu was sitting on the bench and he joined the BJP, she added. The Chief Minister wondered how can people expect justice from the judge who joined the BJP today.

Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of State party chief Sukanta Majumdar, West Bengal LoP Suvendu Adhikari and others in Kolkata.

After joining the party, Gangopadhyay said he has entered into a new world where people like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other leaders are present. He promised to shoulder whatever responsibility the party would give him. He was overwhelmed by the way the party welcomed him and everyone knows corruption is to be fought.

On being asked about the Sandeshkhali incident, he called it a horrible incident and said the State leaders had gone there. Despite being prevented from entering the village, they went there and stood beside the women. He further said that the BJP has been taking up the cause of oppressed people in Sandeshkhali.

On his joining, the State party chief Majumdar welcomed Gangopadhyay to the BJP. Praising the former HC judge, he hoped that the way Gangopadhyay has worked as a Justice in the Calcutta High Court for deprived, exploited victims of Bengal, the former judge will carry forward that work with the leadership of the BJP.

The former HC judge handed over his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu, along with copies to CJI DY Chandrachud and Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court TS Sivagnanam on March 5.

There has been speculation that Gangopadhyay may fight for the Tamluk seat from West Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The 62-year-old Gangopadhay started his term as an additional judge at the high court in 2018. He was later appointed as a permanent judge in July 2020. After serving for almost five years, he is set to retire in three months. Almost a decade ago, he shifted from a career in the West Bengal Civil Service to practising law.

Throughout his career, which spans almost four decades, Gangopadhyay has had a confrontation with a senior judge who overruled his order.

New photos of the suspected bomber of the Bengaluru cafe have surfaced. The guy is seen in the photographs traveling on a bus without a mask and cap. At least ten persons were injured in the explosion that happened on March 1 at the Rameshwaram Cafe in Brookfield, East Bengaluru.

On Tuesday, the suspect was spotted in Tumakuru, Karnataka, at a bus stop. One day later, he left the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat and got on a bus bound for Gokarna. In West Bengal, the suspect got off the bus close to Bhatakul.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also found the suspect’s baseball cap outside a neighboring mosque. According to a source, it appears that the suspect from Bangalore changed his attire following the explosion.

A portion of the suspect’s identify was made public which was obtained by the CCTV footage from March 1.

The suspect entered the cafe at 11.34 am, left at 11.43 am, and then walked to a bus stop more than a kilometer away to make his getaway using public transportation, according to footage obtained by CCTV cameras. The suspect arrived on a public bus at a bus stop approximately 100 meters from the cafe at around 10.45 am.

The NIA posted the suspect’s CCTV image and offered a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information about him on Wednesday.

According to a report, the suspect’s facial features and the CCTV footage from the time of his arrival to his exit, one hour prior to the explosion at the cafe at 12:56 p.m., provided important leads.

The suspect took numerous public buses to place the IED he was carrying and to escape the scene. During the escape, he stopped at a Muslim religious center a little distance from the incident location, as per the source.