Two men were arrested on Thursday for allegedly attacking Nirmal Dutta, a former Trinamool councillor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.

On Monday, a gunman attempted to open fire at Dutta, but the weapon failed. The assailant instead struck the leader with the butt of the pistol before fleeing the scene, police said.

The alleged attack took place when Dutta, a leader of the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress, was entering the local ward office at Duttabad around 7am.

“Goutam Kumar Mondal and Prosenjit Panja were arrested on Thursday for their alleged involvement in the attack. It is very early in the investigation, and we would like to interrogate the duo further to find out more about the reason behind the attack,” a senior officer of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said.

Sources said Goutam, 26 and Prosenjit, 34, had fled the spot in Duttabad immediately after attacking Dutta on Monday morning.

“Based on specific inputs about their whereabouts, the duo were arrested in Kheyada in Narendrapur. It is still not quite clear why they picked upon Dutta for the attack,” the police officer said.

Dutta, whose wife, Alo, is a TMC councillor of the same ward, said he was involved in numerous social activities and had always opposed wrongdoings. “Was I targeted because I opposed the pond filling?” Dutta had said on Monday.

The police said that Dutta alleged that someone tried to open fire at him from a very close range.

“Dutta was able to grasp the man by his arm, preventing his attempt to fire at him. The assailant then struck Dutta on the head with the butt of the pistol and fled, resulting in serious injuries to his head,” said an officer at the Bidhannagar (South) police station, where a case of attempted murder has been filed.

Dutta fell on the ground and started bleeding from his forehead. His screams alerted the people in the vicinity, who rushed to his rescue.

Some of them took him to the Bidhannagar Sub-divisional Hospital, the police said.

“The two were identified from the CCTV footage that was made available to us.
We will check their antecedence and find out whether someone had engaged them for the attack,” the police officer said.