Kolkata:
Former chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s car allegedly came under an attack in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district today. Unidentified goons attacked her car with bricks and stones, she has alleged, in what she claimed could have even killed her. The state BJP has criticised the attack and denied any role in the violence.
Banerjee faced protests in Halisahar on her way to the house of a party worker who allegedly died in police custody. The protesters surrounded the Trinamool chief’s car, smeared mud on it, and allegedly threw shoes and water bottles. “Chor bhagao” slogans rent the air as the police were seen trying to push back the protesters.
Read: Abhishek Banerjee Assaulted During Visit To Party Worker’s House
Banerjee later told reporters that she could have died if the bricks and stones hit her. “Anti-socials from outside threw stones at my car in front of the police. If my car windows were not closed, it could have split my head open. I could have died. I have never faced such an attack. The police did nothing to protect us. They give protection only to the BJP,” she said.
Lok Sabha MP Kalyan Banerjee and Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen, who were accompanying Banerjee, too vented their anger against the administration.
“(Chief Minister) Suvendu Adhikari is running the show using the police,” the Lok Sabha MP said.
State BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya, who has always maintained that he would not tolerate any violence by party workers, condemned the attack on the former chief minister. He said the BJP was not associated with the incident and that the police must take action against those accused.
The alleged attack comes months after Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee faced an attack in his own constituency, following his party’s resounding defeat in West Bengal elections.
Mamata Banerjee was in the North 24 Parganas district this morning to visit the family of Birju Keot, the husband of a former Trinamool councillor who had allegedly died in police custody.
Read: After Abhishek Banerjee Attacked On Hometurf, A Moment Of Opposition Unity
Keot was arrested on extortion charges and sent to five days of police custody by a court last Friday. Jenny Sharma, former councillor of the Kanchrapara municipality, had alleged that her husband was tortured and beaten to death in the lock-up.
Abhishek Banerjee slammed the police and alleged that Keot was picked up by the police despite his name not being in the FIR.
“When the State can take a man into custody despite his name not appearing in the FIR – and he does not come out alive – the question is no longer merely about law and order. It is about the rule of law itself,” the Trinamool leader said.
Chief Minister Responds
Adhikari told reporters that Banerjee forced her way in, intending to claim that the individual had been beaten to death in custody.
“The family members had already said they were satisfied with the administration; they simply want the mystery resolved and a determination made as to whether he died from a beating while in police custody or due to illness. It is the administration – not Mamata Banerjee – that can address this,” Adhikari said.
“When the family members themselves are saying this, why did she go there on a holiday with a lawyer, without even informing the police? I saw that the police made substantial security arrangements, though it is doubtful whether she even receives that level of security now. We have instructions to provide her with full security, given that she is a former chief minister and elderly; the police acted correctly in providing that protection. However, I would ask her, when the family members are shutting the door on you, why do you insist on going there? This is a time for development; please do not go anywhere and do anything that disrupts normal public life,” the chief minister said.
The police are yet to respond to the custodial death allegations.
