The rift between Matua leaders Mamatabala Thakur and Union minister Shantanu Thakur took an ugly turn on Sunday night with an alleged attack on the aunt’s home and a police complaint of property grab and violence against the nephew.

Shantanu, a BJP leader, and his aides allegedly broke the lock on the collapsible gate at the Thakurnagar home of Mamatabala, a Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP-designate, stole valuables and threatened to kill her.

Shortly after the alleged Sunday night attack, Mamatabala lodged a police complaint accusing Shantanu of grabbing her properties.

The incident stunned a large congregation of Matua devotees who had gathered at Thakurnagar on the occasion of the Baruni Mela, which the sect observes every year.

In her complaint, lodged with Gaighata police station late on Sunday night, Mamatabala alleged that Shantanu and 13 others — including his father Manjulkrishna — had entered her home after breaking the lock and the surveillance camera.

She accused them of stealing valuable documents and articles, ransacking her home, and causing grievous injuries to some devotees visiting her.

Members of pro-Trinamul faction of the All India Matua Mahasangha led by Mamatabala Thakur burn tyres during a protest rally in Thakurnagar on Monday afternoon. Picture by Chanchal Pal

“...Shantanu Thakur and other hooligans forcefully entered into my house by breaking down the main door and surveillance camera of my house and stole the documents of the Mela and other necessary papers and documents...” the complaint, written in English, read.

It alleged that some of the hooligans had said “Issko jaan se maar do...”, which it claimed was a “clear threat of attempt to murder”.

It also accused Shantanu, BJP candidate from Bongaon, of issuing threats in his capacity as Union minister. “He told me that ‘I can do anything, I am a central minister’,” Mamatabala said in her complaint.

Mamatabala is chief patron of the pro-Trinamul faction of the All India Matua Mahasangha; Shantanu heads the pro-BJP faction of the same organisation.

Trinamul on Sunday night shared a video that showed a man resembling Shantanu and some others trying to break the lock on the collapsible gate of a house with a hammer, trying to embarrass the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Mamatabala termed the incident “horrible” and “shocking”. “I can’t imagine that a Union minister, a member of Narendra Modi’s cabinet who speaks a lot about the security of women, can enter a holy room using force; (and he is) a Rajya Sabha member, too,” she told reporters on Sunday night.

“If this can happen to an MP, what will happen to the common people?”

Mamatabala, scheduled to take oath as MP on April 10, added: “I have been staying in this part of the house since 1985 when I came here as the daughter-in-law of Baro Maa Binapani Devi after my marriage to Kapilkrishna Thakur.... But Shantanu and his family members have been relentlessly trying to evict me from this part of the house.”

Shantanu denied the allegations. He claimed that “devotees” had been “compelled” to break open the door of a house that is part of the “holy abode” of Matua matriarch Baro Maa, and which he accused Mamatabala of illegally occupying.

He said the lock “had to be broken only after Mamatabala said the keys were missing”.

“Being the grandson of Binapani Devi, I have every right to enter. This is a holy place that devotees have equal right to access to offer their prayers,” he said.

“But unfortunately, Mamatabala Thakur has occupied it exploiting her powers despite the demand of devotees to make it a heritage property and open it for prayers.”

Sources in Thakurnagar said Matua devotees close to Shantanu had demanded that the late Binapani Devi’s home be turned into a heritage building and opened to those looking to pray there. But Mamatabala, who lives in the house, allegedly kept it locked.

A group of devotees who had gathered at Thakurnagar’s Matua Dham for the Baruni Mela went to the house and met Mamatabala on Sunday, urging her to open the collapsible gate.

Matua sources said Mamatabala refused to open the collapsible gate, and the devotees turned violent. Shantanu joined the angry devotees and allegedly broke the lock with a hammer.

Shantanu denied the charge and said no property was damaged.