Former Kolkata Mayor and veteran CPI-M leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya on Saturday alleged that he was manhandled by a group of agitators in West Bengal's Hooghly district.
Bhattacharya claimed "goons" of the ruling Trinamool Congress beat him up on Saturday and stopped him from going to Hoogly's Bhabadighi village to hold a meeting with the local people as part of an apolitical democratic forum "Save Democracy".
"We were stopped on our way to Bhabadighi. Police had barricaded the road. A group of Trinamool Congress supporters attacked us. They dragged me out of the car and pushed me to the ground in front of the police," he said.
"The Trinamool goons hit me and my co-workers of 'Save Democracy' and snatched my mobile phone. Even the females in our group were not spared. This is an unthinkable situation in a democracy," he said.
The veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader also accused the police of not taking any action against the mob.
"Police played the role of a silent spectator throughout. They made no efforts to stop the attack but requested us to go back from the spot. Police have completely failed in maintaining law and order," Bhattacharya added.
Rubbishing all the allegations against his party, local Trinamool Congress MLA Manas Majumdar claimed his party activists were in no way involved in the incident and the protest demonstration was organised by the locals.
"I have heard about the incident. However, Trinamool Congress has no involvement in this. The locals who do not want unrest and provocation in the area stopped them," he said.
District Superintendent of Police Sukesh Jain, however, claimed there was only a "minor scuffle".
"Police were there to ensure nobody got hurt. His (Bhattacharya's) phone was not snatched from him. It fell down during the minor scuffle," he said.
Jain said police did not have any prior information about Save Democracy's programme.
Tension had been brewing since last month in Bhabadighi village, with some residents agitating against the proposed construction of a railway track which, they say, will fill up a large section of a pond.
Terming the present situation in the state as a "reign of terror", the Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra strongly condemned the attack on Bhattacharya.
"The heinous attack on Bikash Bhattacharya at Goghat by TMC goons in presence of police points to the complete reign of terror. Protest massively," Mishra wrote on Twitter.
In the evening, state Left Front heavyweights took part in a rally denouncing the 'attack' and 'vandalism' and 'police inactivity'.
The rallyists, led by LF chairman Biman Bose, Mishra and CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty walked from Kolkata's Entally to Sealdah railway station. Bhattacharya was also present in the protest rally.
State Congress President Adhir Chowdhury criticised the attack on the members of the apolitical forum and charged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with establishing an unofficial law to curb the freedom of speech of the opposition.
"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has formulated an undeclared law that only her party will have all the privileges to speak and act on all the issues. Will no one else apart from Trinamool Congress and its supremo Banerjee be able to voice their opinions?" Chowdhury questioned.
--IANS
mgr/ssp/pgh/bg
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
