The injured Amitabh Maitra. Picture by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, Aug. 19: Twenty-one members of the Congress-backed State Government Employees’ Federation were arrested from the land and land reforms office for allegedly assaulting additional district magistrate Amitabh Maitra this afternoon.

The union members had gone to the office at Karnajora, about 5km from here, to submit a charter of demands to Maitra.

According to sources in the district administration, 21 people, including two women, had come to the office about 11am. They went to Maitra’s chamber and submitted a memorandum to him. The sources said there was a verbal altercation between Maitra and the federation members after which the delegation came out and sat on a dharna in front of the office.

Around 3pm, they entered the office again and another altercation broke out. The union members assaulted Maitra and he suffered a cut on his head, the sources said.

An employee of the land and land reforms office said he and the colleagues heard a loud commotion and the additional district magistrate crying for help. “We rushed in to see the officer bleeding from the head. The delegation members had also threw around the papers on his table.” He said the attackers were confined to the room by the employees and police informed.

The deputy superintendent of police, Sisir Das, and additional police superintendent James Kujur reached the spot with a huge force and surrounded the area. They arrested all 21 members and brought them to the Raiganj police station. Maitra was taken to a hospital and given first-aid. He later went to the police station, along with other senior district officials and filed a complaint against the attackers.

“They had come to give me a memorandum concerning the cancellation of some transfer orders. Right from the beginning, they were speaking roughly and were refusing to hear me out. The union members went out and returned a little while later and began abusing me. When I protested, they attacked me and ransacked the office. They threw scissors, paperweights and paper cutters at me. One of the articles hit my head and I suffered a cut,” Maitra said.

The secretary of the federation in North Dinajpur, Kanu Gupta, said the 21-member team had gone to Maitra’s office to demand the cancellation of transfer orders of 54 women and physically-challenged staff. “The administration had bowed to pressure by the CPM-dominated co-ordination committee and issued the transfer orders. The officer was unwilling to speak to us. When he misbehaved with one of our women members, Dulali Saha, we protested. He called the police and got us arrested,” said Gupta.

Alleging that the bandage on his head was a sham, the leader said his union would go on a strike if the case against the 21 was not withdrawn.

The WBCS Executive Officers’ Association’s district president, Joydeb Saha, said attacks on officers would not be tolerated. “We will launch a movement if the guilty are not punished,” he said.