A rice mill owner at Habibpur has lodged a police complaint of criminal intimidation against BJP’s Ranaghat MP Jagannath Sarkar and his aides.

The MP and his aides had allegedly maligned rice mill owner Krishna Shaw, accusing him of operating a racket to steal FCI rice for the PDS.

In his complaint, Shaw said: “The MP and his men unleashed panic among workers creating an unruly situation. They accused us of illegally buying rice meant for ration distribution. People accompanying the MP were apparently trying to loot rice, but the timely intervention of police foiled their plan.”

“I tried to reason with them showing documents but they were in a mood to listen to me,” said Shaw.

According to the complaint, on May 1, Sarkar led a group of about 100 BJP workers to Shaw’s rice mill in Ranaghat’s Habibpur. A police source said Sarkar and his aides had intercepted a truck loaded with rice entering the mill.

“During the commotion, the BJP workers videographed rice being packed in the mill in used sacks and the truck loaded with rice. The video went viral embarrassing the district administration,” said the source.

The MP sought to refute Shaw’s claim. “The mill owner had failed to provide any logic on how a lorry loaded with rice sacks having FCI tag entered the mill. Only unprocessed paddy can enter mills.”

“I have strong reasons to suspect the mill is involved in a racket that sells government rice,” he added.

An investigation by the administration revealed that the mill owner had procured 25 tonnes of rice from a private supplier to meet the higher demand for foodgrains.

Ranaghat SDO Harsimran Singh said: “We tried to make the MP and his men understand, but they didn’t listen. In an emergency, we had to bring processed rice from Burdwan. It was done according to the government guidelines and we found no disparity.”