The Muraripukur playground that the residents are trying to protect. Picture by Amit Datta

Four CPM cadres were thrashed with slippers by 150-odd women who were enraged at the party’s alleged attempt to grab a north Calcutta playground.

Around 20 party workers watched helplessly as their comrades were being beaten up in a CPM office in Muraripukur on Tuesday afternoon.

The cadres tried to hit back after police arrived, only to be subjected to a second assault by the slipper brigade.

Gauging the residents’ mood, CPM leaders have pledged support to the drive to protect the 10-bigha ground, the only open space in the locality where around 10,000 people live.

Police said trouble was brewing since Sunday, when a group of CPM workers and some autorickshaw drivers demolished a part of the ground’s wall to construct a Citu office.

On hearing the news, members of the Muraripukur Math Bachao Committee, an apolitical body formed by the residents, rushed to the spot and drove out the party men. The forum was formed a year and a half ago, after some residents spotted a land broker inspecting the ground on Muraripukur Road.

On Monday, committee convener Mani Banerjee alleged, some cadres beat up a resident involved in the campaign to save the playground. “They took revenge on us as we stopped them from constructing the Citu office,” said Banerjee.

Around 1pm on Tuesday, some committee members came to know that four of the attackers were hiding in the party office, near the ground. “The women of the locality decided to pay them back in their own coin. Around 150 women gathered on Muraripukur Road within half an hour and marched straight to the party office,” recalled Banerjee.

“We saw the culprits sitting inside and started assaulting them with our slippers. They deserved the punishment,” said Mala Banerjee, who was part of the brigade. The women kept the cadres gheraoed for an hour till the police arrived, after being informed by some party activists.

Kamal Patra, the officer-in-charge of Maniktala police station, said: “We persuaded the women to leave the spot and later organised a meeting between CPM workers and the residents.”

Kalyan Mukherjee, the local councillor and deputy mayor, said the residents have been using the field for the past 30 years. Local MLA Rupa Bagchi (CPM) said: “I will back the residents’ effort to save the playground.”