Kolkata: A court in West Bengal’s Jhargram on Sunday sent Kurmi leader Rajesh Mahato to one day police custody in connection to the attack on the convoy of Trinamool Congress’s national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Friday evening.
Seven others, who were arrested along with Mahato in this matter, were also sent to police custody.
Mahato, a teacher of a state-run school, was first transferred from his district to a distant one after the attack and finally arrested.
The transfer and arrest of Mahato came amid two developments over the attack on Abhishek Banerjee’s convoy.
On Saturday only, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while addressing a rally at Salboni in West Midnapore district, where the attack on Abhishek Banerjee’s convoy took place on Friday evening, accused BJP of trying to create a Manipur-like situation in the state through caste-violence by instigating the Kurmis against the other tribal communities.
At the same time senior Kurmi leaders like Alit Mahato and Sunman Mahato have threatened to go for bigger agitations in the state in case of any stringent police action against the members of the community and their leaders over the attack on the convoy.
A total of 15 persons have been named in the FIR filed by the state police in connection with the attack on the convoy. Rajesh Mahato was one of the 15 named in the FIR. In the attack on Friday, the vehicle of West Bengal Minister Birbaha Hansda, who herself comes from a tribal background, was damaged
Meanwhile, a rival outfit of tribal communities close to the ruling Trinamool, has given a call for general strike in West Bengal on June 8 over the attack on the vehicle of Hansda.
The call has been given by the United Forum of All Tribal Organisations in West Bengal. Biplob Soren, a leader of the outfit, said that Birbaha Hansda is a woman coming from a tribal background. “At the same time she is a member of the West Bengal cabinet. We have called for the strike in protest against this attack on her,” he said.
(IANS)
