Residents of West Midnapore’s Debra on Saturday tied a local Trinamul leader to a tree and beat him up with shoes and sticks for allegedly duping them with promises of jobs in exchange of money.
Accused Dilip Patra is a former president of the Trinamul labour union’s Debra block.
Eyewitnesses said he was tied to a tree near the primary health centre in Satyapur, under zone-III in Debra, and was thrashed with shoes, sticks and brooms.
The entire incident was also captured on video.
“There are several accusations from residents naming Patra as the culprit of giving out false assurances of employment against payment of money then making off with the cash that amounts to lakhs,” said an irate resident.
Sources said Debra has a sizeable tribal population.
“He played on our insecurities concerning our sons by assuring us that he would get them jobs. But it was all a giant hoax,” said another resident.
“Days rolled by and two years passed but not a single person who paid him heard about jobs. Moreover, he brushed us off with indifference once he got the money. So we naturally were very angry. He had this coming for a long time,” a resident added.
Debra resident Kanai Murmu said Patra had taken Rs 5 lakh from him nearly three years ago by assuring him of an eventual job in the railways.
“Once I began asking him about the job last year, he kept stonewalling me and giving me excuses which I finally refused to accept,” he said.
A neighbour of Murmu’s who had paid Rs 2 lakh t Patra, said the Trinamul leader had given him a cheque under duress, but it bounced in the bank.
On Saturday, collective rage against Patra apparently mounted. He was picked up in public by some residents and taken to a nearby field.
Protesters said they had come together under the banner of tribal community organisation Bharat Zakat Majhi Pargana Mahal.
Organisation president Gopal Murmu said Patra had cheated people.
“People tied him to a tree and unleashed their anger. The method was not planned,” he said.
Patra publicly admitted to collecting the money and pinned the blame on an unnamed associate in Calcutta.
“I tried to get all of you jobs, but my associate in Calcutta took all the money from me and then did not act. When I asked him for the money back, he refused to return even a single rupee,” Patra was recorded as saying amid the incident but did not name the associate.
Trinamul block president Vivekananda Mukhopadhyay said he had directed police to look into the matter.
“Money matters should be probed by police. The party is not linked with any of this,” he said.
“A person named Dilip was rescued on the information that he was tied up and beaten up. However, no written complaint has been filed by any party so far,” said a police officer in Debra.
Sources said police were not present at the site of the incident and were informed by eyewitnesses well after it transpired.