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Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday said that the law and order situation in West Bengal is such that it could compel citizens to leave the state, following an alleged attack on a customs officer by a mob inside his flat in a multistoried housing complex in South 24 Parganas district.
Pradip Kumar, a customs officer, had allegedly quarrelled with an auto-rickshaw driver when the three-wheeler bumped into his car at the entrance of the housing complex in the Rajpur-Sonarpur municipality area on the south Kolkata outskirts on Thursday evening.
“A mob entered the complex and went to the officer’s flat on the fourth floor. He suffered a head injury. This is the law and order situation. All citizens will leave Bengal. Only those without options will stay back,” Adhikari said after meeting Kumar at a friend’s apartment in Kolkata’s Kasba area, where he took shelter after the incident.
Head of Trinamool Congress’s social media cell, Debangshu Bhattacharya, said, “Police take action without taking into account an accused’s background. One person has already been arrested. The others will be nabbed as well.”
The Sonarpur police station arrested a person on Saturday, who was granted bail by the Baruipur court hours later. Three more people who were arrested on Sunday were granted bail too by the same court in the afternoon.
“Although police pressed charges under six sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita we prayed for bail citing the fact that the first information report (FIR) was lodged against unknown persons,” lawyer of three suspects held on Sunday Chandrani Sengupta said .
A police officer said a case of assault was registered against the customs officer as well based on a complaint by the mother of the auto-rickshaw driver with whom he had an altercation.
According to Kumar, around 250 people assembled outside the complex while 53 men broke into his flat. “I was returning from work when an auto-rickshaw hit my car. There was a quarrel before I went home. When other residents informed me that a mob had assembled outside the complex, I called up the local police station, but nobody came. The police kept saying they were busy managing (Kali Puja) immersions,” Kumar said on Sunday.
“These men entered the complex and reached my flat. They broke the collapsible gate at the entrance and ransacked the flat. Someone hit me on the head with a hard object, leaving a bleeding injury,” Kumar added.
Kumar’s colleagues took him to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Kalyani in Nadia district for a medical checkup on Sunday.
The local Sonarpur police station did not make any official statement.
TMC councillor from Ward 25 of the Rajpur-Sonarpur municipality, Sonali Roy, where the incident happened, condemned the attack and said, “I do not want to take names but urge Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to keep a watch on Rajpur-Sonarpur.”
“Can a mob assemble outside a gated housing complex and enter one of the buildings unless these people enjoy someone’s protection? Who were these men? We don’t have 250 auto-rickshaw drivers here,” Roy added.
