Six youths were arrested for trespass and intimidation after entering the house of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand nephew and Trinamool Congress MP Sugato Bose on Monday and demanded that construction materials for the ongoing repairs of the house be taken from them.
Eight youths, riding motor bikes, forced their way into the house in south Kolkata's Sarat Bose Road and wanted to know in a threatening tone as to who had been given the contract for repairing the house, said eyewitnesses.
"There has been an incident of trespass and intimidation. My mother was in the house. I was on phone then. They spoke to my mother (Krishna Bose, a former three-time MP) in an aggressive way," said Bose, whose late father Sisir Bose -- a leading paediatrician remembered for driving Netaji from Kolkata to Gomoh during his escape -- had built the house.
When Sugato Bose came out, there was an altercation between him and the youths.
"These people wanted to know who was the contractor. They wanted that cement, sand and other materials should be taken from them. When I asked them to leave the house, they left."
Bose said it had to be ensured that common people did not face such harassment. "I only want to say what has happened in our house is not that important. What is important is that common people should not face such harassments. This is my only prayer."
After Bose informed the Ballygunge Police Station, officers rushed to the house.
Bose said he lodged the complaint as he was concerned about the safety of his mother and wanted ordinary citizens not to suffer the same ordeal.
Later, six of the youths were arrested.
Industrialists, builders, factory owners as well as common citizens, have for years been complaining about extortion by syndicates formed by youths for supplying materials for any form of construction across the state.
The ordeal faced by Bose, a noted historian and teacher of Harvard university, has come as a big embarrassment for the ruling Trinamool Congress.
--IANS
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