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At an event held at the Press Club in Kolkata, Padma Shri awardee Aparna Sen said that the military is being given more power than they should get.

West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anirban Ganguly has sent a legal notice to Bengali actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen for allegedly calling the personnel of the central security agency “rapists” and “murderers”, news agency ANI reported.

According to regional media reports, the national award-winning director and Padma Shri awardee made the statements at an event held at the Press Club in Kolkata on Monday. Sen further stated that the military is being given more power than it should get, and also urged the West Bengal government to think about the people living at the border regions so that they can do trade and farming as per their choices.

This is a fresh addition to the ongoing row regarding the Centre’s decision to extend the BSF jurisdiction in Assam, Punjab and West Bengal, from 15kms to 50kms. The West Bengal legislative assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution against the Centre’s decision. Punjab, where Congress is in power, has also passed a similar resolution against the extension of the BSF jurisdiction.

Trinamool Congress argued that such an extension will cover West Bengal’s multiple important towns and goes against the federal structure in which law and order falls under the state government’s ambit.

In the West Bengal assembly on Tuesday, TMC MP Udayan Guha claimed that BSF personnel touch women inappropriately while conducting searches during border movement. “No matter how much they say Bharat Mata ki Jai, they cannot be patriotic,” he added.

However, a BSF officer told ANI that the force’s ‘Mahila Praharis’ have the sole authorisation to conduct searches at the border on women. The officer refuted the allegations by Guha by labelling them as “utterly baseless”.

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