Dankuni: The BJP’s West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar on Tuesday was stopped for the second consecutive day from visiting the riot-hit areas of Hooghly district by the police citing prohibitory orders.
The BJP state president wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the afternoon “pointing at the worsening law and order situation in the riot-hit areas” and sought his intervention into the matter.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC are in force in several places of Hooghly district where clashes broke out between two groups during a Ram Navami procession on Sunday.
Two Ram Navami processions were organised in Rishra area, one of which was attacked near Wellington Jute Mill More on GT Road around 6.15 pm on Sunday, police said.
Majumdar, an MP from Balurghat in North Bengal, was on his way to Battala in the Serampore Lok Sabha area to attend a protest programme.
But Majumdar, along with his party MP Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, was stopped on Dankuni Road by the police.
“We did not break Sec 144. We requested the police to at least allow my party MP Jyotirmay Singh Mahato and me. The police don’t want to allow me as they want to hide the truth,” the BJP state president told reporters.
Majumdar, who had demanded that central forces be immediately deployed in the trouble-hit areas and an NIA probe as the “state police have completely failed to control the situation”, said if he is not allowed to join the protest at Battala, he will launch a sit in on that spot.
The BJP state president on Monday was stopped from visiting the violence-hit Rishra area in Hooghly district by the police citing prohibitory orders in the area.
Meanwhile, state BJP general secretary and Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee reached Rishra by train but was stopped by the police at the station.
Chatterjee, after a verbal duel with the police officers who did not allow her to step out of the railway station citing prohibitory orders, was seen squatting on the platform and organising a sit-in.
Reacting to Majumdar’s allegations, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh accused the BJP of fomenting trouble.
“The BJP is trying to disrupt communal harmony and peace in the state. When the police have restored peace, why is the BJP trying to foment trouble? At the cost of peace, the BJP wants to get votes,” he said.
In the evening, Majumdar and a BJP delegation met Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose and apprised him of the situation.
Rushing from Darjeeling to visit violence-hit areas of Hooghly district, the Governor said on Tuesday hooligans will not be allowed to take the law into their hands.
