The Trinamool Congress MP from Dum Dum, Saugata Roy, met party workers on Monday and told reporters later that the workers will not have any truck with real estate developers and criminals.
Roy went on to add that the party had “made mistakes in the past” and promised that “it will not happen in the future”.
The admission of guilt and the instruction to cadres come at a time when the alleged involvement of Trinamool strongmen in extortion, coercion and browbeating in the city’s north have come under the scanner.
Police on Sunday arrested Abhijit Mandal, alias Rana, a Trinamool leader from Cossipore, for allegedly beating up Abhijit Sarkar, a real estate developer, in Sinthee for refusing to pay ₹5 lakh.
Rana’s arrest came within a week of the arrest of Jayanth Singh for allegedly beating up a young man and his mother in Ariadaha, a little further north.
Singh is said to have been close to Trinamool’s Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra, who sat next to Roy when he spoke on Monday.
“We have decided that Trinamool Congress workers will not have any relationship with developers and anti-socials anywhere. We will make amends for any mistakes in the past,” Roy said at the end of an almost two-hour meeting with party workers in Karmarhati.
“The meeting lasted quite long and everyone present agreed (to abide by the decision).”
As Dum Dum MP, Roy’s sway stretches over parts of Baranagar, Kamarhati and Khardah, where violence unleashed by goons enjoying political patronage has embarrassed the Trinamool leadership.
Photographs of Jayanth sharing space with Roy and Mitra and pictures suggesting Rana’s proximity to Atin Ghosh, Calcutta’s deputy mayor and Trinamool MLA from Cossipore-Belgachhia, have been in circulation for the past few days.
“There may have been some mistakes in the past. But there’s a time for everything. Beginning today, July 15, we have decided that there won’t be a repeat of the past. Necessary corrections will be made. Neta, kormi, keu-i aar yogayog rakhbe na (leaders, workers, no one will be in touch with developers and criminals),” Roy said.
On June 15, Barrackpore businessman Ajay Mandal’s Volvo car was sprayed with bullets on BT Road, just across Kamarhati Municipality. Mandal was seated next to his driver when two men on a motorbike drew close as the car slowed down at Rathtala and fired at least five bullets.
Mandal said he received threat calls from Subodh Singh, a Bihar-based gangster who was then lodged in a Patna jail, within hours of the attack and continued doing so even thereafter. The Bengal CID recently took Subodh in its custody.
Within days of Jayanth’s arrest, MP Roy said he had received calls from two unknown numbers. The callers, he said, threatened to kill him if he did not ensure Jayanth’s release.
Jayanth’s proximity to the Kamarhati MLA became a talking point after reports circulated that the prime accused in the alleged assault on the mother-son duo in Ariadaha had built a multi-storey house without a sanctioned plan.
On Monday, Roy said: “We were in the dark about Jayanth’s house, it’s true. How would we know without someone informing us?”
While Roy was admitting mistakes, more allegations about threats emerged from the area. Many spoke about “Rana’s terror” and how he would flaunt his proximity to Trinamool leaders.
“Saturday morning’s attack was not Rana’s first. Almost a year back, he had walked into my brother’s office in Baranagar and threatened to kill him if he wasn’t paid,” said Tapas Majumder, a cousin of realtor Abhijit Sarkar, who had to be admitted to hospital after Friday night’s assault.
“For our next project near Baranagar Bazaar, we had to award a contract for supplying building materials to Rana,” Majumder said.
“About three years back, Rana had threatened to kill me because they felt I was coming in the way of his bagging contracts for projects,” said Debabrata Pal, a realtor in Baranagar.
