A day after its armed cadres raided the State BJP headquarters injuring a dozen saffron workers and leaders, the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday expanded its radius of attack in Bengal districts, burning down BJP party offices, ransacking another at Durgapur and gheraoing Union Minister Babul Supriyo’s house in North Kolkata even as police continued to look the other way.
Marauding TMC goons attacked BJP general secretary Krishna Bhattacharya and BJP Chuchura Mandal president Nimai Dutta and their houses in Hooghly. Bhattacharya has been admitted to the ICU of a local nursing home with severe head and other injuries, sources said. “Such is her condition that she needs an MRI scan but we have no police protection to take her to an MRI unit. Her tongue has been partially torn off and she is fighting for her life,” said Bhattacharya’s brother.
“They were all anti-socials of the Trinamool Congress,” Bhattacharya said in her police complaint even as local MlA and State Minister Tapan Dasgupta, who is also the district TMC president, denied any such reports. “The Trinamool Congress never resorts to such nefarious activities,” he claimed.
The one-sided violence escalated on Tuesday when the Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for his alleged complicity in the Rose Valley Group chit fund scam.
The Trinamool lumpens employed the same awe-and-shock ploy that they had been indulging in against the left and the Congress, setting district BJP offices on fire and raiding State leaders’ houses. The TMC goons also attacked BJP party offices in Piara Bagan in Hooghly, Durgapur and Alipurduar, sources said.
In the national Capital, TMC MPs took out a march to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence in protest against Bandyopadhyay’s arrest but were detained mid way. They demanded Modi’s resignation and enquiry into his taking money from Birla and Sahara groups.
“It is nothing but vindictive politics. But we will continue to fight this,” TMC leader Derek O’brien said after coming out of the Tughlaq Police station along with other party MPs in Delhi.
“There were 34 TMC MPs who held a peaceful protest outside 7 RCR. We protested the political vendetta. Our aim is Modi hatao desh bachao,” Obrien said.
In a similar incident, a gang of armed TMC men set the Chuchura Mandal office afire. They also seriously beat up some party men who were sitting inside the office, sources said. “The hapless people were running like being chased by wild dogs,” said a shopkeeper, who witnessed the incident from a distance.
Nemai Dutta, the BJP Mandal president in Chuchura, was also beaten up and his house raided by the Trinamool goons who damaged the entire interiors of the house, sources said.
“Our party offices have been ransacked throughout the State. Bombs have been hurled at homes of various party leaders. The police are just a mute spectator,” BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said.
In Kolkata a band of BJP workers blockaded the apartment building of Babul Supriyo at Kailash Bose Street in north Kolkata demanding his arrest.
The Bengal ruling party’s violent aggression continued amid protest rallies taken out throughout the State against the arrest of TMC lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay whose wife and MlA Naina Bandopadhyay demanded arrest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that “his name has appeared in scams where documents with the Sahara and Birla show how he accepted money from them.”
Naina earlier filed an FIR against CBI officials for summoning Bandopadhyay in the name of interrogation and then arresting him. “Why is the CBI not arresting Modi, Babul Supriyo,” the TMC MlA form Central Kolkata said.
The Wednesday’s developments also saw reports coming from the closed doors that said a “topmost” Bengali cine star could soon be summoned for her alleged involvement in the Rose Valley deals. The female star had acted as a go-between in Rs 300-crore hawala deal struck between Rose Valley boss Gautam Kundu and a Singapore-based NRI industrialist.
Meanwhile, condemning the TMC attacks on the BJP party office, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvarigiya stopped short of reminding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee --- “on whose behest the attacks are taking place,” --- of a payback.
“The TMC is found in Bengal but BJP can be found from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. If the BJP imitates Trinamool then can Didi (Banerjee) move around in the rest of the country!” he wondered.
He said “the BJP believes in democracy and will not resort to such activities.” However that his party would not sit quiet if such attacks continued, he added.
He also accused Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar of non-cooperation alleging Kumar who was involved in destroying in Sharada documents did not take any step when the BJP party office was attacked.