BJP hits at Kolkata cop who stopped its protest, says he molested Tibrewal
The BJP complaint was made after Kolkata police booked BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar and other leaders including Priyanka Tibrewal for unlawful assembly, rioting and use of criminal force to stop public servants .
Kolkata: Hours after the Kolkata Police booked Bengal’s top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and Priyanka Tibrewal, the party candidate against Mamata Banerjee in the Bhawanipore assembly bypoll, for Thursday’s agitation near the chief minister’s home, the opposition party on Friday complained to the Election Commission allegedly that Tibrewal was molested and beaten up along with other leaders by Akash Magharia, deputy commissioner of police (south).
Magharia led the police team on Thursday evening when chaos prevailed near Banerjee’s south Kolkata residence at Kalighat as the BJP staged an agitation with the body of Manas Saha, a district leader, alleging that he died of injuries inflicted by Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers in May.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar, Lok Sabha members Arjun Singh and Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato, and Tibrewal were booked by the Kalighat police station for unlawful assembly, rioting and use of criminal force to stop public servants from discharging duty.
In a letter to EC, the BJP accused Magharia of dragging and pushing Majumdar and said “the same officer molested and inappropriately manhandled Priyanka Tibrewal and some women.”
The BJP demanded that Magharia should be removed from election duty immediately and face departmental proceedings.
Magharia said the allegation was baseless. “It is in the public domain...You can see the video footage. I have not even touched her. I was standing quite at a distance,” the police officer told news agency PTI.
Later, the chief minister also reacted to the agitation at a campaign meeting that she addressed for 40 minutes on Friday.
“Some incident took place after the election. But this (the death) is not related to it. I heard there was a surgery later on. The man died of surgery. Any such incident is sad, whether it is in my party or in some other party. When I was in Nabanna (the state secretariat) yesterday, they tried to take the body to my home. Just look at the audacity. These people will otherwise run if someone box their ears,” Banerjee said and moved on to other issues.
Around 15 minutes later, she again referred to Thursday’s incident. “You are taking a dead body to my home. What will happen if I send a dead dog and leave it outside your house? Will that be good for you? Do you think I don’t have the machinery? It will take me a second to drop a dog’s rotting carcass outside your home. The stinking smell will not let you eat anything for ten days,” said Banerjee without naming any BJP leader.
Her reaction triggered a strong reaction with Union minister Smriti Irani, who was in Kolkata to campaign for the BJP, alleging that Banerjee called Manas Saha a dog
“How can Bengal elect a woman who does not even show respect to the dead and call him a dog?” Irani said at a meeting.
Priti Saha, the wife of the deceased, reacted too. “What kind of a chief minister do we have? How can she call my husband a dog?” she told the media.
Saha, who unsuccessfully contested the Magrahat West assembly seat in the March-April elections, was allegedly assaulted by TMC workers after the results were declared on May 2, the BJP said. Saha died in hospital on Wednesday after months of treatment.
BJP leaders blocked the road near Gopal Nagar when the police stopped them from moving towards the chief minister’s home with the hearse. The police stopped the BJP from staging an agitation and removed Majumdar and the others who sat on the road, blocking traffic.
In its complaint to the EC, the BJP said, “The procession, maintaining Covid guidelines and restrictions, was peacefully proceeding when a large number of police personnel resorted to unprovoked aggression and started charging towards the funeral procession.”