E-Paper
4 persons who won Bengal panchayat elections allegedly abducted in Kolkata: Police
The TMC rejected allegations that its activists were involved in the abduction, saying the party had done well in the panchayat elections
KOLKATA: Four persons who won the panchayat election against the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district were allegedly abducted from a Kolkata house where eight of them were hiding on Thursday night.
A senior Kolkata police officer said they have received a complaint about the abduction of four persons including two women and are investigating.
According to the complaint, eight candidates who won the panchayat election against the TMC in Mathurapaur were forced to flee their village due to threats from the TMC after the results were announced on July 11. They had been staying in a rented house in east Kolkata since July 25.
“On Thursday night, 20–25 armed TMC goons came to the house in four vehicles and abducted four of us,” Paramita Pramanik, one of the eight candidates who were hiding in Kolkata told reporters.
According to the complint, three of the four abducted persons were from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the fourth was an independent candidate supported by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
“I usually don’t let my house to strangers. They approached me with the reference of a local resident saying that they have come to attend a marriage ceremony and rented the house for ten days,” said Bappa Ghosh, owner of the house.
“There was a commotion late in the night and I saw that some people had come in vehicles. They were forcing some of the guests to get into the vehicle and drove away,” he said.
Former state minister and veteran CPI-M leader Kanti Ganguly said the complaint was lodged by the remaining four candidates. “We will also move the court,” he told reporters.
BJP leader Rahul Sinha said they had earlier seen how TMC activists looted ballots. ”Now even winning candidates are being kidnapped. Law and order have completely deteriorated in West Bengal,” Sinha said.
The TMC, however, distanced itself from the incident. “Why should we do such things? The TMC returned to power with a huge mandate in 2021 and in the recent panchayat polls, the people voted for us. This is the BJP’s style of operation where they use muscle and money power to bring winning candidates to their party,” TMC MP Santanu Sen said.
