KOLKATA: A five-member team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will look into the alleged assault on its supporters during the protest march in Kolkata four days ago. The members of the panel, which has been constituted by the BJP’s national president J P Nadda, visited the injured party workers admitted in a hospital on Saturday, and said, “West Bengal is going through jungle raj and gunda raj.”
The members of the team also met the injured councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Meena Devi Purohit, who received injuries on her head during a police lathi charge. The team comprises Rajya Sabha members Samir Oraon and former Uttar Pradesh DGP Brij Lal; Lok Sabha MPs Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Aparajita Sarangi; and Sunil Jakhar, a BJP leader from Punjab.
“Extortion by ruling party functionaries has become common in Bengal. Corruption and scams to the tune of several crores have already surfaced,” Lal said, without mentioning the names of arrested former Trinamool Congress minister Partha Chatterjee and party’s strongman Anubrata Mondal. Lal added that the people of Bengal are watching everything, and they will teach the ruling party a lesson in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Oran said the police acted mercilessly on BJP supporters following an order from the higher authorities. The team, which landed in Kolkata on Friday evening, will submit a report to Nadda after returning Delhi on Sunday.Referring to TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s statement that he would have shot at the forehead of the attackers, Lal said, “This is nothing but a reflection of the arrogance of power.”
Banerjee had made the remark a day after an assistant commissioner of police was assaulted during the protest march in which a pitched battle had broken out between the police and BJP supporters. “Had I been in the injured cop’s place, I would have shot here,” he had said, pointing at his forehead.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too had said that the police remained tolerant during the event. The BJP had claimed that at least 200 of their supporters were injured due to police high-handedness, while the latter said 27 men in uniform were injured by the violent supporters of the saffron camp who pelted stones and bottles.