Mob attacks police station in West Bengal’s Birbhum

Incident staged to disturb communal harmony, say police.

February 17, 2019 09:39 pm | Updated 09:39 pm IST - Kolkata

Google Maps image locates Labpur block in Birbhum district of West Bengal.

Google Maps image locates Labpur block in Birbhum district of West Bengal.

An incident of alleged kidnapping of a female school teacher turned parts of the Labpur block in the Birbhum district into a battlefield on Sunday. The mob attacked the local police station with stones, while the police alleged that the objective of the purported kidnapping was to disturb communal peace in the area. Three persons, including the father of the allegedly kidnapped woman, Suphravat Batyabal, a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, were arrested. Interestingly, the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) district leadership also indicated that their local TMC MLA is possibly involved in the kidnapping of the 22-year-old school teacher.

Tension gripped Labpur on Saturday as a mob smashed the local TMC MLA Manirul Islam’s vehicle and chased him, forcing him to take refuge in the local police station. They alleged that Mr. Islam was involved in the kidnapping of the local school teacher. The mob attacked the police station, where Mr. Islam took shelter, and pelted stones on the forces for a couple of hours.

The incident took place four days after Mr. Baytabal’s daughter was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint at Labpur. The woman's mother lodged a complaint at the Labpur Police Station. She, however, did not mention any names but claimed that “unknown miscreants” kidnapped her daughter, district police officials said. Following the arrest of the woman’s father on Sunday, an Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Birbhum told journalists that the entire incident was “staged to implement a political agenda.”

“We have arrested the boys (Raju Sardar and Dipankar Mondal), who apparently kidnapped the woman, from Dalkhola in north Bengal. They met the kidnapped woman’s father Supravat Batyabal [who, too, was arrested] earlier in the week and plotted the kidnapping,” said the police officer.

Mr. Batyabal, who was a member of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), switched to the TMC after the CPI-M’s defeat in 2011. Mr. Batyabal joined the BJP recently. Police said that the rescued teacher is in a state of shock.

The district leadership of the BJP, which has grown substantially in Birbhum over the last few years, alleged that the miscreants were TMC-backed goons.

However, the Birbhum chief of the TMC, Anubrata Mondal, alleged that both the BJP and Manirul Islam, TMC’s MLA, are involved in the kidnapping of the girl. “When the girl was interrogated, she said that her father and Mani uncle [Manirul Islam] masterminded the plan. Even if anyone is attached to the party [the TMC] and encouraging such acts, the person won’t be spared. No one is a Governor here,” said Mr. Mondal.

Police officials, however, refused to comment on Mr. Islam’s involvement.

( With agency inputs. )

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