3 TMC leaders held for 2020 Nadda convoy attack

The West Bengal Police on Monday arrested three persons, including two influential Trinamool Congress leaders of Magrahat in South 24 Parganas, for their involvement in the December 2020 attack on the convoy of the BJP national president JP Nadda, who was visiting the area to hold a public meeting.

Officials of the Diamond Harbour Police district named the accused TMC leaders as Ripon Sheikh and Sanjib Mondal, who were allegedly close to the arrested local don and former TMC MLA Jahangir, sources said.

Diamond Harbour Superintendent of Police Chandrashekhar Bardhan said that though they were picked up in a different case, “subsequent interrogations have revealed that they were involved in the attack on BJP leader JP Nadda’s convoy in which several people were injured.” The police recovered revolvers and cartridges from the arrested persons, officials said.

The TMC leaders were arrested following a complaint made by a local resident who had allegedly received death threats from them. “He received the threats before the Assembly elections but could not lodge a complaint out of fear... But after the elections he lodged the complaint, and the two were picked up by the police ... Subsequent interrogations revealed their active involvement in the attack on the BJP procession on December 10, 2020,” an official of the Usthi Police Station, which falls under Diamond Harbour police district, said.

When contacted, State BJP leader and MLA Sajal Ghosh said that “no one will be spared ... We said that criminals deserve a place in jail and they will go to jail during the BJP rule.”

In the attack six years ago, several BJP workers were injured, and many vehicles, including the one that Nadda was travelling in, were damaged, sources said.