Calcutta, April 1: “Nandigram” has become a tool to grab land in Calcutta. If you are not a Trinamul Congress voter, just grin and bear it.

Trinamul supporters have seized seven cottahs belonging to a 62-year-old woman, Lolita Lekha nee Majumdar. At the current market price, the land will fetch Rs 1.05 crore.

The land grab has the blessings of an MLA and the endorsement of another — both representing a party that fed on the movement in Nandigram against forcible acquisition.

Lolita, who shuttles between Calcutta and Mexico, was driven out of her ancestral property on 130 A Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road, near Ranikuthi, last month. The land borders a club, Netaji Jatiya Sebadal, run by Trinamul.

“They became violent and threatened to kill me if I ever visited the area to claim my property. About 200 people led by MLA Arup Biswas gathered on the spot and misbehaved with me. Some of them spat on my face and I had no option but to return,” Lolita told The Telegraph. “They also said that they would turn the area into a Nandigram if I tried to take possession of my land.”

The violent response appeared standard procedure. On Tuesday, over a hundred youths, mostly Trinamul supporters, surrounded The Telegraph team and snatched the camera from the photographer and mouthed invectives.

“We won’t let you go from here. You will be allowed to go only after our leader Arup Biswas says so. The land is a playground where we have cultural programmes throughout the year. We will never allow anyone to take over the land,” a man said.

Contacted, the MLA did not beat about the bush. “The land belongs to the local club. We will not allow anybody to take over the land,” he said.

By making that assertion, the MLA has thrown a direct challenge at the law of the land. On March 18, the Alipore magistrate court had ruled: “Jadavpur police should see that no breach of peace takes place and that the opponents are restrained from doing any wrongful act at the time of lawful construction of boundary wall in respect of the property. OC Jadavpur is directed to keep close vigil over the issue and maintain peace at the locality.”

But the police, too, cited the Nandigram parallel and blamed Lolita for leaving the land vacant for many years. “The officer-in-charge told me that he did not want a Nandigram to happen there and asked me to leave,” Lolita said.

She visited Writers’ Buildings and submitted a letter to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s office requesting him to intervene in the matter.

A couple of days ago, Lolita met senior Trinamul Congress leader and MLA Saugata Roy and complained that his party supporters have been encroaching on her land.

“He refused to help me saying I am not his voter. What a strange response!” Lolita, a teacher-turned-social-worker, said.

Roy confirmed having met Lolita and had no qualms in iterating the basic criterion for getting protection from law-breakers.

“It’s right that the local people have occupied her vacant land but she is not our voter and we don’t want to antagonise so many refugees for her sake. This is not a public interest matter. So it does not concern me at all,” he said.

Roy seems to have some respect for the law, but only if it is laid down by the high court. “So many properties have been occupied illegally in Calcutta. We will see whether we can help her only if she files a writ petition in the high court under section 226 (infringement on her fundamental right),” he added.

Contacted, Praveen Kumar, the superintendent of police (South 24-Parganas) said: “We will comply with the court’s order and will act accordingly.”

Lolita’s father, the late Sailendra Mohan Majumdar, a barrister in Calcutta High Court, had bought the property — 22 cottahs — a couple of months after India became independent. But the state government took 15 cottahs when the Urban Land Ceiling Act came into being in 1976.

Majumdar challenged the acquisition but lost the case and he had to part with 15 cottahs. After Majumdar’s death in 1996, Lolita applied to the Alipore court for a letter of administration (which certifies her as the legal heir of her father) and she got it in January 2007. A few months later, she got the mutation certificate from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation after paying outstanding property tax dues.

“After Partition, my father lost his property in East Pakistan and bought the land with the hope of building a house. I cannot give up my land even if I have to shed my blood,” Lolita said. Her two sons and a daughter stay in America while she travels between Calcutta and Mexico where she has a house.

Lolita’s mother Beryl Burridge Majumdar, a musician, was well-known in Calcutta and had a school on Park Street.