On Thursday (July 21) night, a scuffle broke out between two factions of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party during which they hurled bombs at each other. The incident took place in Balundi village in Arambagh municipality in Hooghly district of West Bengal.
As per reports, the TMC workers were returning home after attending the Martyrs’ Day rally in the Dharmatala neighbourhood in Central Kolkata.
It is alleged that at about 8:30 pm on July 21, a faction led by TMC (Arambagh) Youth President Palash Roy came under attack from another TMC faction led by area Deputy Head Alok Santra.
Alok is the brother of former TMC legislator Krishna Chandra Santra. While recounting the incident, a TMC worker narrated, “We were returning from the meeting when goons of Alok Kumar Santra began assaulting us. Three of our workers were beaten mercilessly.”
An aide of Palash Roy, Rakuri Santra, stated, “I was en route to the party office when we were gheraoed by the men of Alok Santra. We were then assaulted with sticks and other weapons. We are TMC workers and were beaten for attending the party meeting in Kolkata.”
Several people were injured during the attack, post which they were admitted to Arambagh Sub-Division Hospital. A local TMC office was also vandalised during the incident.
As per allegations, the two factions hurled crude bombs at each other during the scuffle. A TMC worker is said to be missing since the incident. A contingent of Arambagh police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) was called in to pacify the situation.
In his defence, Alok Santra claimed, “We had gone to Dharmatala. They (faction led by Palash Roy) carried out vandalism and abducted one of our men. We have informed the cops. Some women are witnesses to the incident. We will take them to the police and register our complaint with the Inspector-in-Charge (IC).”
“They (Palash Roy’s men) claim to be TMC workers. If it was so, then, why would they vandalise the TMC office? These goons are led by Palash Roy. We had booked 2 cars to go to Dharmatala. They were hardly anyone in their car. They have done all this out of anger over marginal support received by their faction.”
Meanwhile, the Arambagh police have launched a probe into the matter.
3 TMC workers killed by a party member in Canning
On July 7, TMC (Gopalpur) gram panchayat member Swapan Majhi was killed by a group of 6 people near Peer Park in Canning in South 24 Parganas district. Besides Majhi, two TMC workers, namely, Jhantu Halder and Bhootnath Pramanik were also murdered.
Reportedly, the assailants first hurled a crude bomb at the trio. Swapan Majhi was shot twice while Bhootnath Pramanik was shot only once. After the accused ran out of bullets, they hacked Jhantu Halder to death.
Then, they also tried to behead the three victims. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the Canning police based on a complaint by Madhu, the elder brother of Swapan Majhi.
Six people, namely, Rafiqul Sardar, Basir Sheikh, Bapi Mondal, Ebayadullah Mondal, Ali Hosain Naskar and Jalaluddin Akhand were named as accused in the FIR.
It later came to light that the primary accused in the triple-murder case, Rafikul, was a worker of the Trinamool Congress. The revelation came at a time when the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal was trying to pin the blame for the gruesome murders on the Opposition.
After Rafikul’s mother claimed that her son was part of the TMC, the party went into a defensive mode. Local TMC leader Saikat Molla claimed, “There is no party worker by the name of Rafikul in Canning. Anti-social elements can’t be members of our party.”
