A Trinamul Congress worker from Basirhat who had suffered injuries last week allegedly after being beaten up for protesting an attempt to grab his land by a rival faction of the party, for the construction of a party office, died on Tuesday.

The victim’s family was recently allotted a house under the central housing scheme for the poor, on the basis of that plot and they were awaiting the financial grant to begin construction.

Sirajul Mollah, 32, a resident of Harishpur-Charpara under Ward 16 of Basirhat, succumbed to his injuries at a nursing home in Madhyamgram. Nursing home sources said that the victim had suffered head injuries and suffered major loss of blood.

Family members and party sources in Basirhat said Mollah was attacked on September 19 by some ruling party workers during an altercation, when they tried to put up a party flag on the land owned by him.

Eyewitnesses said that Mollah, angry at the land-grabbing attempt by his own party men, removed the party flag which the rival section members had put in to ensure their claim for the construction of the party office.

“We owned the land long ago and recently allotted houses under the central government scheme showing that land. But some youth on the fateful day came and tried to grab it by putting
the Trinamul flag. I tried to resist them but they ignored my plea,” the victim’s
mother Noorjahan Khatun Dhali said.

Two days later, he was shifted to a nursing home in Madhyamgram and died on Tuesday morning.

Local leader Surajit Mitra Badal said: “It is a very unfortunate incident. We never encourage any such illegal occupation. But it appears to be a misunderstanding among
our party workers. Long ago there was a party office in the area. There might be some misconceptions about its location. We are looking into the matter”.