The inspector in charge of East Midnapore’s Tamluk police station on Tuesday evening filed a suo motu case against the BJP’s Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari and 14 others, for a “malicious” picket on the premises of the East Midnapore district police headquarters on Monday.
Adhikari, accompanied by 14 others, including five BJP MLAs, led the picket called “Tamluk SP gherao” to protest “police inaction” against alleged political violence inflicted on BJP workers.
Tamluk inspector-in-charge Arup Sarkar’s report states Adhikari, now the BJP’s leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, and others from his party had been requested not to hold the rally in the light of Covid-19 safety protocols, but they disobeyed these and also reportedly made communal statements aimed at ASP (headquarters) Syed M.M. Hasan.
“The main points are that Adhikari and 14 others used questionable language and obstructed a road on the premises of the police headquarters despite being asked not to,” said a source.
Among others named in Sarkar’s complaint are MLAs Ashok Dinda (Moyna), Rabindranath Maiti (Bhagabanpur), Santanu Pramanik (Khejuri), Arup Kumar Das (Contai South), Tapasi Mondal (Haldia), and BJP district unit chief Nabarun Nayak.
Sources said the BJP leaders entered the area around 2pm with a large crowd, and made incendiary statements over the mic, including those aimed at ASP Hasan. Sarkar took note of the purported utterance as “demeaning and threatening” in his complaint.
Adhikari allegedly also tried to browbeat the state police force, presumably the IPS officers, by threatening transfers. “Don’t do deeds that will get you posted in (Jammu and) Kashmir’s Anantnag or Baramulla,” he reportedly said.
Bhagabanpur MLA Maiti said the BJP workers were being “attacked” and the “police are working for Trinamul”. “That is why the leader of the Opposition (Adhikari) warned the police. The police filed a case against us for political reasons. We will deal with it legally,” said Maiti.
Amid the Pegasus phone-hack row, Adhikari claimed he was in “possession of all their (police’s) phonecalls”. Trinamul state general-secretary Kunal Ghosh said Adhikari exposed the BJP’s role in the alleged snooping scandal.