The West Bengal Congress chief, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, was halted by police on Friday while en route to the unrest-ridden Sandeshkhali area, where protests erupted over alleged atrocities on villagers by TMC leaders, citing prohibitory orders.
Chowdhury, leading a Congress delegation, faced initial obstruction from police officials at Sarberia and later at Rampur, on the way to Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district. Authorities invoked prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) as the grounds for denying entry to the Congress delegation into Sandeshkhali.
Chowdhury criticized the Mamata Banerjee-led government, accusing it of trying to politicize the situation. He questioned why opposition parties were being barred from entering Sandeshkhali and what the state government was attempting to conceal. After the interruption at Rampur village, Chowdhury and Congress workers staged a sit-in, leading to a minor altercation with the police.
Addressing reporters, Chowdhury condemned Banerjee for allegedly communalizing the issue by introducing aspects of Hindus and Muslims into the narrative. He stated that instead of acknowledging the incidents in Sandeshkhali as a matter of shame, the chief minister was attempting to give them a communal spin. Chowdhury’s remarks came amid Banerjee’s allegations implicating the saffron camp in instigating unrest in the area.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) accused the TMC and the state government of complicity in crimes against women in Sandeshkhali. Chowdhury, a vocal critic of the chief minister, questioned the relevance of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the violence, asking about its connection with the disturbances in Sandeshkhali.
Protests in Sandeshkhali continued for the eighth consecutive day, with a significant presence of female demonstrators demanding the arrest of TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his associates. Earlier in the day, a delegation of BJP MPs, including two Union ministers, was also prevented from visiting Sandeshkhali by the police, citing prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.
