Kolkata: Fourteen masked men stormed the seventh-floor Trinamool Congress office at 9 Camac Street at 4.30 am on Thursday, vandalising computers, CCTV monitors and glass panels before fleeing with files containing documents.Six men, all residents of Howrah, have been arrested in connection with the office attack. Police said they are investigating potential political links of the accused.Trinamool has written to President Droupadi Murmu and governor RN Ravi, seeking urgent appointments with them to flag what it termed “disturbing and systematic misuse” of police and the deterioration of law and order in the state.Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee works out of the Camac Street building, where the party has its offices on the sixth and seventh floors. Police sources said seven persons climbed the stairs and another seven took the elevator to reach the seventh-floor office. CCTV footage of their vandalism and removal of documents went viral.Trinamool sources said the intruders also assaulted four party employees and snatched their mobile phones to prevent them from calling for help.Blaming “BJP hooligans” for the attack, Abhishek Banerjee shared CCTV footage of the rampage and alleged that police reached the spot around two hours after being contacted via phone and email.Ex-CM Mamata Banerjee said BJP sent the men to destroy documents. “Why were our computers taken? Why were our official papers, documents, records and files ransacked? Four of our people were kept confined in the office and tortured. The entire office was vandalised right under the nose of Shakespeare Sarani police station,” she said.Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya denied the allegations. “Had BJP been engaged in vendetta politics… none of the defeated Trinamool MLAs, ministers and MPs would have remained unscathed,” he said.Bhattacharya alleged that disputes within Trinamool led to the ransacking of the office. “Trinamool members are throwing eggs at each other and vandalising each other’s office. Those who faced injustice at the hands of Abhishek Banerjee… understand the situation,” he said.Baranagar MLA Sajal Ghosh alleged that the incident was staged, claiming no one from BJP was involved in it.Police have not yet established any political link of the suspects. “We will take police custody of the accused to ascertain the political standing of each. We have recovered most items from the spot or from where they were taken,” said additional commissioner (crime) of Kolkata Police, Kunal Agarwal.He said Shakespeare Sarani police station was informed about the incident just before 6 am. “Our team immediately went there and arrested six accused at the spot. Items, including vandalised property, were seized. A case has been registered. The accused are being questioned to identify and arrest the others,” Agarwal said.The six arrested individuals have been identified as Avinash Kumar Shaw, Sukdeb Gupta, Suraj Shaw, Bhambol Mondal, Sankar Rao and Rohit Porel.9 Camac Street has seen administrative actions of late. A week ago, a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) team removed a Trinamool billboard from the roof of the building on the grounds that it lacked authorisation and was hanging dangerously.Abhishek and his associates were accused of obstructing municipal workers, leading to three FIRs. Fourteen party workers were arrested. Abhishek, Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien and former KMC mayoral council member Baishanor Chattopadhyay were questioned by police.On Monday, fire brigade and police officers inspected the building to check for unauthorised construction. The fire department later sent a notice to Trinamool asking why its offices would not be sealed for violating fire safety rules, giving the party 48 hours to respond.
