Kolkata: A 42-year-old BJP worker, Arup Saha, husband of a BJP Panihati mandal secretary Ruma Saha, died after being allegedly assaulted by a group of men, including BJP workers, at Sodepur’s Deshbandhunagar on Saturday night. The attack allegedly took place after Saha, along with his wife, protested against the assault of a local businessman and threats of extortion.Panihati MLA Ratna Debnath, who rushed to their house, accused BJP’s district leadership of patronising those responsible. She alleged that district president Chandicharan Roy had appointed Trinamool workers, close associates of former Panihati MLA and Trinamool strongman Nirmal Ghosh, as convenors in every ward of Panihati Municipality, claiming that this was leading to such incidents.Debnath, also the mother of the RG Kar rape-murder victim, visited the bereaved family on Sunday and demanded CM Suvendu Adhikari’s intervention and questioned the law and order situation in the area. She also launched a scathing attack on BJP’s North Kolkata Suburban district president Roy, alleging that he had appointed convenors of his choice in several wards, most of whom were former Trinamool members.Roy, however, said, “I am now busy with Chhath Puja programmes and cannot comment on any matter.”On Saturday evening, Ruma rushed to Ishwar Chatterjee Lane market to find a group of youths assaulting a local businessman, Shankar Dey, following an altercation over an alleged extortion demand. “Ruma intervened and asked the youths to go home. However, she faced abuse and threats from some members of her own party. When she returned to the spot later in the night after receiving a phone call about fresh trouble, her husband accompanied her. When the couple protested against the assault, the situation took a turn for the worse,” a local trader said.Ruma alleged that she found around 40-50 youths at the spot, including Rajdeep Das, president of BJP Yuva Morcha’s Panihati Mandal-1, Raja Tahsildar and Surajit Biswas alias Nani.“Some were supporters of former TMC MLA Nirmal Ghosh. When I tried to calm the situation, they advanced towards me. My husband Arup intervened to protect me, following which they shoved him hard and punched in the chest, after which Arup fell unconscious and collapsed on the ground,” Ruma said.Arup was later rushed to College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital late on Saturday night. He died while undergoing treatment on Sunday morning. Ruma alleged that people who had recently switched from Trinamool to BJP were behind the attack. “We immediately contacted the local police station, but the OC asked us to contact the police commissionerate,” she added.“The induction of former Trinamool workers into BJP without proper coordination had created internal discord and lawlessness,” she said. She also accused the district president of giving greater importance to those who joined BJP after the poll results.“Anyone who commits a crime, whether from Trinamool or BJP, is a criminal and must be punished according to the law,” Debnath said. The MLA added that she had apprised the CM of the situation in Panihati and urged strict legal action against everyone involved in the attack.“A case has been registered under specific sections of the law on the basis of the family’s complaint. The matter is being probed. We are awaiting the post-mortem report,” a senior Barrackpore Police Commissionerate official said.
