After an office of Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Camac Street in Kolkata was vandalised by armed men early on Thursday, September 3, the party alleged “utter lawlessness” in West Bengal and sought urgent meetings with President Droupadi Murmu and West Bengal Governor RN Ravi.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that it was BJP workers who attacked and vandalised the party’s office and demanded immediate action against the perpetrators. BJP leaders in West Bengal, however, rejected his claims, saying the saffron party had nothing to do with the pre-dawn attack.
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TMC boss and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee condemned the vandalism and said her party would stage demonstrations outside the residences of BJP leaders in New Delhi if such “atrocities” continued.
The attack comes after a confrontation between TMC leaders and workers and Kolkata Police personnel during an operation to remove an allegedly unauthorised billboard from the building’s rooftop last week. Three FIRs were registered over that confrontation, naming Mamata Banerjee and party MP Derek O’Brien were named, among others, in the three FIRs registered in connection with that confrontation. Mamata Banerjee appeared before Kolkata Police on Tuesday, and police interrogated O’Brien for hours on Wednesday.
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In a Facebook Live on Thursday, Mamata Banerjee said it was BJP-supported men who attacked the Camac Street office of TMC and looted documents and equipment from there. The attack, she said, was a clear indication that law and order situation in West Bengal was on the downhill.
Abhishek Banerjee said in a social media post that Kolkata Police did not respond for nearly two hours after the attack despite repeated calls and emails from party workers and lawyers. “At around 4.30 am, BJP hooligans, armed with weapons, stormed our party office in the heart of Kolkata. They attacked our people, snatched their phones, smashed furniture, ransacked the premises and destroyed electronic equipment,” said Abhishek Banerjee.
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TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien described the attack as “disturbing and systematic misuse of the police by the BJP government in Bengal”. He said TMC had written to both the President and the Governor seeking appointments with a delegation to draw their attention to the “worsening law and order situation” and “political misuse” of the police machinery.
Two other TMC MPs—Mahua Moitra and Saugata Roy—said around 25 men entered the Camac Road office of the party, overpowered security guards and went on a rampage across the sixth and seventh floors. They said the attackers broke open the entrance, smashed glass panes and damaged computers, printers, scanners and other equipment. The attackers also took away television screens, air purifiers, laptops, documents and other material from the TMC office, they alleged.
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“We repeatedly contacted police from around 4:30 am, but personnel reached the premises only around 6:30-7 am, only after our lawyers went to the police station… Six people have been taken into custody for this incident but we are in doubt whether they were the same people who entered the office… Police personnel later prevented our party members from entering the affected floors to assess the damage,” said Moitra.
