Two TMC legislators in Bengal heckled, assaulted by own party leaders

Kolkata, Nov 1 (IANS) Two Trinamool Congress legislators, both from North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, were heckled and beaten up by their own party leaders at two separate places in the same district.

The first one to be assaulted on Thursday night was Sukumar Mahato, the Trinamool Congress MLA from the Sandeshkhali Assembly constituency.

Mahato's associates alleged that a group of miscreants and the deputy chief of the local Hatgacha panchayat Abdul Kader Mollah suddenly surrounded the legislator's car and heckled him.

"The miscreants pushed the legislator harshly. While his associates tried to resist they were also beaten up. All of them were close associates of Abdul Kader Mollah," said one of Mahato's associates.

Mollah had been known in the area as a close confidante of now suspended Trinamool Congress leader from Sandeshkhali, Sheikh Shahjahan, who is currently in judicial custody under various charges like plotting the attack of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials earlier this year, sexual exploitation of the women at Sandeshkhali and illegal grabbing of land there.

Mollah, however, has denied his involvement with the assault on Mahato.

Meanwhile, in a similar incident on Thursday night, Trinamool Congress legislator from Minakhan Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, Usha Rani Mondal, and her husband Mrityunjoy Mondal were attacked and beaten up allegedly by her party members while they were returning from a Kali Puja-related event.

The legislator herself received injuries on her limbs because of the attack.

She has allegedly held local Trinamool Congress leader Abdul Khalek Mollah and their associates responsible for orchestrating the attack.

According to Mondal, one of her associates, who was beaten up, is currently under treatment at a hospital in Kolkata.

The accused Trinamool Congress leader, however, has denied the allegations and claimed that it was the legislator's associates who first attacked him and his associates.

"There is a long complaint against the legislator that she is maintaining a clandestine understanding with BJP. Many of her associates have also been suspended from the party on those charges," said Abdul Khalek Mollah.

--IANS

src/khz