West Bengal cop faces action after TMC factions clash over illegal sand business

Nine people, including Swapan Sen, a member of the TMC’s Khayrasole community block unit, were arrested till Wednesday noon.

The officer-in-charge of a police station in West Bengal’s Birbhum district was taken off duty on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after two Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers were injured in a clash between rival groups over the control of illegal sand business in the region, officials involved in the probe said.

For representational purposes only. (AP File Photo)

Nine people, including Swapan Sen, a member of the TMC’s Khayrasole community block unit, were arrested till Wednesday noon.

“Purnendu Bikash Das, in-charge of the Kankartala police station, has been taken off duty and confined to the barracks until further orders. All nine accused will be produced before the Dubrajpur court. An investigation is on,” a district police official said, requesting anonymity.

Dubrajpur circle inspector Subhashis Haldar was asked to take charge of the Kankartala police station in the interim period.

TMC worker Sattar Ali and his brother Babu Sheikh suffered splinter injuries on Tuesday when two rival groups, fighting over commission from the sale of sand from the local Ajoy river, hurled bombs at each other at Jamalpur village in Khayrasole, the probe found.

“The clash was a fallout of an old rivalry between two TMC factions that want to control the illegal sand business,” Anup Saha, the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator from Dubrajpur, said.

Denying the allegation, Moloy Mukherjee, vice-president of the TMC’s district unit, said, “The clash had nothing to do with TMC. There is no infighting. Police are taking strong action against those involved. Nobody will be spared.”

The Birbhum incident took place barely four months after chief minister Mamata Banerjee ordered district officials to be vigilant.

While holding an administrative meeting in Birbhum in September 2024, Banerjee said the state government was losing revenue because of unauthorised excavation of sand from riverbeds by organised gangs.