A policeman stops CPM activists in Nandigram on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Nandigram/Calcutta, April 20: A hail of stones greeted Mamata Banerjee’s convoy in Nandigram today as CPM supporters blocked her way to an alleged rape victim’s house.

The Trinamul Congress leader was going to visit the family of the woman who has accused CPM supporters of raping her on Friday, a year after she was raped by another suspected CPM gang.

Mamata ran into a mob of around 50 — most of them women — at Garupara, near Paramanikpara where the family lives, around 3.15 this afternoon.

Carrying bamboo sticks and scythes, they shouted “Go back Mamata” and “Nandigram ele dholai hobe, petai hobe (If you come to Nandigram, you’ll be beaten up)”.

Trinamul MLA Subhendu Adhikari, who was accompanying Mamata in a Scorpio, stepped out and started to walk towards Paramanikpara.

But the CPM activists came running towards him, raining abuses. The Contai (south) MLA took flight, with the mob hot on his heels.

“As I ran to Paramanikpara, I saw officer-in-charge of Nandigram police station Debasish Chakraborty with the CPM activists. I heard him provoking the mob against us,” Adhikari alleged.

The CPM activists then surrounded Mamata’s convoy and started hurling stones at the Scorpio.

Repeated pleas from additional superintendent of police Prasun Banerjee and Haldia sub-divisional police officer Gaurav Sharma fell on deaf ears. The officers then requested Mamata to cancel her trip and head back to Calcutta.

Around that time, about 20 CRPF personnel reached Garupara. The CRPF’s women’s wing arrived half-an-hour later. But Mamata had left by then.

“The CPM activists had planned to kill me and that is why they pelted my car with stones. But the policemen and CRPF jawans remained inactive all through,” she alleged. “If they can attack my car in front of policemen, you can imagine the condition of the common people here.”

Purnima Das, 25, a witness, said the CPM activists could have harmed Mamata “had we not formed a security ring around her vehicle”.

Mamata and her supporters marched to Nandigram police station and demonstrated for nearly 45 minutes demanding action against the OC. She also lodged a complaint against the officer.

“The OC of Nandigram had conspired with CPM activists to murder me. Without his backing, the CPM activists could not have attacked my vehicle,” she alleged.

Chakraborty denied the charge. “CPM activists flared up only when Adhikari got off Mamata Banerjee’s vehicle and threw away some CPM posters from the spot,” the OC said.

The Trinamul leader had got a taste of a similar attack in Nandigram last October. Her convoy was fired upon near Tekhali bridge at Gokulnagar following clashes between CPM and Trinamul supporters over land acquisition.