Agartala, Aug 11: Tripura Police have registered a suo moto case against Trinamool Congress (TMC) National General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, and five other senior leaders of the party after they protested against the arrest of 13 other TMC leaders for allegedly flouting COVID-19 protocol.
West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu, MP Dola Sen, senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, former Tripura MLA and current TMC leader from the state Subal Bhowmik and another, Prakash Das, were also mentioned in the case (77/21) registered on the basis of the FIR filed by the Officer in Charge of Khowai Police Station at his station, about 55 km from the state capital Agartala, last Tuesday.
They had come to meet the 14 party leaders including Debangshu Bhattacharjee who were arrested on August 7, at Teliamura, about 35 km from Khowai district headquarters. Debangshu and the 13 other leaders were brought to the Khowai Police Station last Sunday to be presented to the Judicial Magistrate when Abhishek and five others allegedly made “illegal demand” to the police for release of the arrested and change sections levelled against them.
The accused were further alleged of creating a ruckus in the Khowai police station and “obstructing duty” of the police personnel there on August 8.
“More than one hour they made obstruction in police duty and due to their obstruction police could not produce the arrested accused persons before the learned Court in time,” the complaint mentioned.
All six have been slammed with charges of obstructing a public servant from discharging duty and of common intent under sections 186 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
Abhishek, who is also the nephew of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, during his protest at the Police station last Sunday had said that Tripura is run by “law of ruler” instead of rule of law.
Debangshu and the 14 others were arrested from near National Highway-08 in Teliamura on charges of flouting COVID-19 protocol after they had organised protest against the attacks on them allegedly by BJP goons.
The arrested 14, after the protest by Abhishek and others at Khowai Police Station, were later on the Sunday afternoon presented infront of a First Class Judicial Magistrate who released them on bail.
Once they were granted bail, they travelled back to Kolkata even as Banerjee alleged that none of them were given medical treatment in the state.
Encouraged by its third consecutive landslide victory in West Bengal despite tough campaigns by the BJP for the Assembly elections in March this year, the TMC is attempting to make inroads in Assam and Tripura — the BJP ruled northeast states with a large Bengali speaking population — since early July this year.
On the last week of July this year, a 23-member team of the star poll analyst Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, the team often credited behind scripting TMC’s victory in Bengal, were detained by Tripura police in a hotel at Agartala.
