Time: Friday, 10.30 am

Place: Bermajur-Kachharipara in Sandeshkhali

What happened: A large group of villagers, mostly women armed with sticks and brooms, attacked the residence of Trinamul’s local unit secretary Ajit Maiti. The villagers vandalised Maiti’s house, a two-wheeler and also beat him and his wife Lata. Twenty minutes later, the mob torched a guard room of a bheri, owned by Trinamul leader Sirajuddin Sheikh, which villagers alleged was built grabbing agricultural land.

Time: Friday, 11.50 am

Place: Bermajur-Kachharipara in Sandeshkhali

What happened: ADG of police (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar rushed to Bermajur-Kachharipara to hold talks with the villagers who attacked the Trinamul leader and his home.

Sarkar told villagers: “The way you have been reacting cannot be the solution...”

He warned villagers of legal action if they took the law into their hands. While assuring to sympathetically investigate their complaints, he at the same time told Maiti that a probe would be conducted into allegations against him. If found true, he would be arrested, Sarkar told the Trinamul leader.

The incidents in Sandeshkhali on Friday threw up two stories — one, that the troubled zone will continue to burn for some time and two, the state government is desperate to establish the rule of law and will not hesitate to take tough measures against those who dare step on the wrong side of the law.

At the same time, the two senior-most police officers, including DGP Rajeev Kumar who made his third trip to Sandeshkhali, cautioned ruling party leaders that they would be arrested if large-scale allegations of land grabbing and atrocities lodged against them were found true.

As things began to spiral out of control in Sandeshkhali, where protests first broke out on February 8 against local Trinamul leader Shahjahan Sheikh and his two aides Shibaprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, and police struggled to establish the rule of the law in the area, a desperate state government decided to optimise the role of DGP Rajeev Kumar and ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar to win the confidence of the villagers.

“The police of North 24-Parganas do not have much credibility in Sandeshkhali. The people have accused cops of operating in connivance with the Trinamul leaders. Realising that the situation was slowly spiralling beyond control and Opposition parties were fuelling the discontent with an eye on Lok Sabha polls, the state government had no option but to para-troop Kumar and Sarkar in Bengal’s biggest political hot spot in recent times,” a senior police officer said.

The decision to send the two senior lawkeepers to Sandeshkhali and rush them with unusual alacrity to Bermajur-Kachharipara, where villagers turned violent and attacked Maiti’s house, showed that the government was trying to put in a strong act while showing sympathy to the aggrieved villagers and promising them justice.

The objective of Friday’s action was to serve twin purposes — to win the confidence of villagers and also convey the message that unlawful activities would be dealt firmly and therefore they should refrain from such acts. To prove his words, the ADG put his phone on the loudspeaker and spoke to North 24-Parganas district magistrate Sharad Kumar Dwivedi, asking the official to facilitate the process of listening to villagers’ complaints and return their land parcels if those had been grabbed from them.

“Forget about the past. We will take your complaints from today itself. Please return to your homes. I assure you all get justice. Law is equal for all. If you commit any crime action will be taken against you. You cannot take law in your hand,” Sarkar told aggrieved villagers outside Maity’s home, who pleaded innocence.

Speaking to Maiti’s wife Lata, the ADG said: “Legal action will also be taken against your husband if he has committed any crime and at the same time action will be taken against those who attacked you.”

A senior police officer in Basirhat said that the police had decided not to apply force at this moment. Instead, it has decided to deal with the situation strategically by mixing of compassion and caution.

DGP Kumar almost conveyed the administration’s intention to blow hot and cold while trying to control the eruption of public outrage Sandeshkhali.

An under-construction poultry farm that was vandalised by residents in Sandeshkhali on Thursday. The farm belonged to Shibaprasad Hazra. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

While asking villagers to refrain from taking “law in their hands”, Kumar, who revisited Bermajur village to meet protesters, said: “Apander jodi oshubidhe thake, abhijog thake, apnara amader janaben. Amra byabostha korbo. Kintu jodi aayin nijer hathe neben, tahole oshubidhe ache. (If you have any problem, any complaint, report it to us. We will take action. But if you take the law into your own hands, then there is a problem).”

He added that the government would set up camps where all types of complaints would be accepted.

One of the villagers was heard asking: “Shotheek hobe to Sir (Will that really happen, Sir)?”

Kumar responded: “Ekdom hobe (It will absolutely happen).”

To assure the villager that his grievances would be looked into, Kumar asked officers accompanying him to note down the phone number of the person and record his complaint. He also told his officers that “we must keep our word”.

Before he left for Calcutta, Kumar said: “We all have to establish the rule of law. Rule of law does not mean that If I have been wronged, I will have the right to do wrong to others. We have to follow procedures. There are a few people who do not want common people’s problems to be solved. They create artificial problems in such places. We can make out the difference between artificial arson and the arson from the common man’s anger.”

When asked if there was any lapse from the administration’s side, he said: “We are accepting. There was a mistake. We will establish rule of law.”

While the police want peace to return to Sandeshkhali, it would not be an easy task if the mood of the villagers is any indication. Justifying their outburst of anger against Maiti and Shahjahan’s brother Sirajuddin, whose guard room at a bheri was set on fire on Friday, a villager said: “We have shown our patience for too long. Where were the police when the likes of Shahjahan, Siraj Maity, Uttam and Shibu took away our land, cheated us of money and sexually assaulted our women for years? They worked as the agents of the Trinamul goons. It is our time now and we will only stop after gifting justice to ourselves.”

Understanding that the task at hand was not easy, the police imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in some areas of Sandeshkhali after Friday’s violent incident, while at the same time carrying on with the process of returning land illegally taken away from villagers by Shahjahan and his henchmen.

“During the past two days some people got back their land but if this violence continues we will get busy handling the law and order issue first. If you want a solution then speak about the present only,” Sarkar told a group of villagers.

Trinamul MLA Sukumar Mahata termed the police role “very positive”, while reiterating that most of the allegations against Trinamul leaders were fabricated.

“A probe will prove the reality,” he said.

Reacting to the sudden proactive presence of senior police officers in Sandeshkhali, a BJP leader in Basirhat said: “Mamata Banerjee has deployed police to protect the goons. She is using the police to threaten the people so that they stop the agitation. The government will not succeed.”