In what looked like a pre-civic elections warning to the police personnel across Bengal against diligence, hundreds of ruling Trinamool Congress hoodlums, led by a local leader, on Sunday, ransacked a police outpost, damaged half-a-dozen vehicles besides injuring nine policemen.
The attack at Champdani Police outpost in Hooghly district followed after the police impounded a motorcycle which had no valid papers. The bike belonged to a friend of the local Trinamool Congress Councillor Vikram Gupta, who reportedly led a huge contingent of 400-500 men and ransacked the building, damaging Government vehicles and grievously injuring nine cops, including the officer in-charge of Bhadreshwar Police Station, sources said.
A large posse of RAF and Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans had to be deployed to bring the situation under control. About 18 people were arrested. The Councillor is still at large, police said. The incident took place barely two weeks before the State is scheduled to go for Municipal Elections for 92 civic bodies, including the high profile Kolkata and Siliguri municipal corporations. The Opposition parties condemned the attack.
“We had asked for papers from a bike owner who refused from doing so. As we confiscated the vehicle he called the Councillor. The Councillor brought hundreds of people along with him. They attacked the outpost with rods and stones,” said a police man refusing to be identified.
local Congress leader and former MlA, Abdul Mannan, said, “Things seem to have boomeranged on the police. They have let the Trinamool thugs go all these years and now they are feeling the consequence. This is only going to increase.” CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty said, “This is a warning to the policemen to act against the Trinamool during the polls at their own peril.”
There have been a number of attacks on police stations by the Trinamool goons during recent years. “We have seen three deaths of men in uniform but nothing has happened to the culprits because they belong to the TMC,” said a Police Association member.
Mannan reminded how, within days of assuming her post, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had entered a police station and got three goons released. Subsequently, Birbhum party leader Anubrata Mandal publicly called on his men to bomb police vehicles. A most recent attack was reported from Banerjee’s own constituency in South Kolkata, where cops were seen hiding under the table in the face of an attack by the Trinamool goons.
“Nothing will happen to the Champdani culprits. Message is clear for police. Allow rigging or go to hell. We want to see the role of the State Election Commission that has already been reduced into a tool in the hands of Mamata Banerjee,” Chakrabarty said.