Police are yet to arrest Parijat Ganguly, the alleged leader of a group of cow vigilantes who tied up and assaulted four cattle traders in Durgapur on Thursday, prompting many political parties to question the intention of the Trinamool Congress.
Police officers in Durgapur said on Friday that they had found out that local BJP leader Ganguly had led the group that had attacked and paraded the Muslim cattle traders.
The police had arrested Anish Bhattacharya and Dipak Das on Friday in the case.
“We have raided all possible hideouts where Parijat Ganguly could have taken shelter, but he could not be found. Serious efforts are being made to arrest all culprits soon. Such incidents will not be tolerated,” said a senior police officer.
A court in Durgapur on Saturday remanded Bhattacharya and Das in police custody for five days.
A section of the residents in Durgapur demonstrated in front of the Durgapur police station on Friday night, demanding the immediate arrest of all the culprits.
On Thursday, the BJP activists led by Ganguly had beaten up four persons after accusing them of being Bangladeshi intruders smuggling cattle and tied up their hands. The cow vigilantes paraded them forcibly after making them hold their ears in full public view in the Gammon Bridge area under the jurisdiction of the Coke Oven police station in Durgapur town. The attackers also released 20 cattle from a truck.
The incident occurred barely 200 meters from the local police station, but the cops allegedly did not intervene to rescue the traders.
The outrageous incident came to light after a video clip of the torture surfaced on social media, prompting Trinamool leaders to launch a protest and lodge a police complaint.
Opposition parties, barring the BJP, said incidents of cow vigilantism were common in BJP-run states and asked how such an attack had taken place in Trinamool-ruled Bengal.
“I appreciate that Trinamool Congress launched a protest and lodged a complaint with the police against the barbaric incident. But my question is why such an incident will happen during Trinamool’s rule. Why has the prime accused not been arrested yet?” asked Nawsad Siddique, the ISF MLA
from Bhangar.
He said the traders were yet to get back the cattle. “Also, who will compensate for their financial loss and shoulder the expenses of their treatment?”
“One of the traders has received eight stitches on his head,” said Siddique.
The MLA visited the homes of the victims in Jemua village on Saturday.
“I spoke to the victims and came to know that the BJP activists had not only assaulted them but also stolen their money and mobile phones. I don’t want to give the incident a communal colour but will describe this as a heinous crime,” he said.
The traders were returning home after purchasing cattle from a weekly cattle market in Bankura’s Hatashuria.
Trinamool leader in Durgapur, Uttam Mukherjee, said all the culprits would
be arrested.
“In BJP-run states, those accused of such incidents are rewarded, but in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal, the accused will be punished. This is the difference,” he said.
CPM leader Siddhartha Bose said the incident showed that the BJP and Trinamool were the two sides of the same coin.