Two of the six Sangh parivar-linked stone-throwers in skullcaps and lungis who were caught in Murshidabad on Wednesday were on Friday sent to five days’ police custody. Three of the rest, all minors, were remanded in jail for 14 days after being booked for serious offences.
Police said the sixth boy was being treated for abdominal pain in hospital. All the four minors, aged 16 to 17, are higher secondary students, they added.
At a news conference on Friday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed “shock” at “how low they (the BJP) can stoop” to malign a particular community and try to “set Bengal ablaze”.
Abhishek Sarkar, 21, member of RSS student arm ABVP and locally known as a BJP worker, and the five others had allegedly been seen changing their clothes near railway tracks at Radhamadhabtala village and stoning a passing train engine. The villagers had caught them and handed them over to the police.
On Friday, the court of Lalbagh additional chief judicial magistrate Suparna Ray gave the police the custody of Abhishek and Prabhakar Saha, 22, member of a VHP family in Murshidabad town.
Sources explained the minors were sent to jail rather than a remand home because some of the penal code sections invoked against the six, such as 505(1)(b), were “serious”.
This section relates to “statement, rumour or report, with intent to cause… fear or alarm to the public… whereby any person may be induced to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquillity”.
Among the other sections invoked are 143 (unlawful assembly), 419 (cheating by personation), 427 (mischief) and 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance) apart from provisions of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.
“I was shocked when I found out (about the incident). I called up Murshidabad police; they told me it’s true,” Mamata said. “This is what we have been fearing…. You can imagine how low they can stoop to set Bengal ablaze.”
Over the past few days, the Trinamul chief has been alleging at her rallies that the BJP, intending to malign a particular community, had been buying skullcaps to wear while fomenting trouble during the protests against the amended citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens.
“The law, of course, will take its course. But this is deplorable. Everybody must understand that this is the truth of their (the parivar’s) propaganda machinery,” Mamata said.
BJP district president Gouri Sankar Ghosh continued to deny any links between his party and the six accused.
Radhamadhabtala residents said that Sarkar, a third-year BA student at the Subhas Chandra Bose Centenary College in Murshidabad, was a regular at BJP and ABVP rallies.
Sources in Murshidabad town said Saha’s late uncle was the VHP chief in Murshidabad and his father Gopeswar is a VHP member too. Saha is a photocopier, police sources said.
“Both Sarkar and Saha are known for their radical views and were appreciated by their district leadership,” an officer said.
On Wednesday evening, a seventh member of the group, who was video-recording the stone-throwing, had fled after being accosted by the villagers. He remains untraced.
“The youths claimed they had worn lungis and skullcaps for the sake of a video they were shooting for their YouTube channel. But they could not prove the existence of any such channel,” district police chief Mukesh had said on Thursday.