BJP candidate from the Magrahat West Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district — Dhurjati Saha — who was allegedly assaulted by Trinamool Congress MLA Giasuddin Mollah’s henchmen after the announcement of election results on May 2, died at a city hospital on Wednesday evening.
Dhurjati Saha’s wife and BJP have demanded a CBI probe into the murder.
The family members of Dhurjati Saha (aka Manas) said that he was brutally beaten up by the Trinamool MLA and his goons on May 2, due to which Saha received severe head injuries. Though he was immediately shifted to a local hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Thakurpukur on the southern fringes of Kolkata, he succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday.
Saha’s wife alleged that her husband was beaten up outside the counting centre in Magrahat by three-four Trinamool workers who were close to Mollah, and the police, even after being informed, did not come to his rescue even when he had sought their help.
“He could be taken back home much later following the intervention of local BJP leaders and some residents of the area. As his condition deteriorated, he was taken to a hospital. We demand a CBI probe into the incident and arrest of those behind the attack,” she said.
“He was beaten up by the henchmen of the local Trinamool MLA after the counting trends showed he (Saha) was trailing. He had to be admitted to the hospital the next day,” said BJP MP Arjun Singh, who visited the hospital in Thakurpukur after Saha’s death.
Arjun Singh himself has often been on the radar of the TMC regime. He was left with a bloody head after a police lathi charge in 2019, and his home has been targeted multiple times with crude bombs.
Prof. Saswati Sarkar, a scholar and close follower of Bengali politics, tweeted about the murder and gave the names of the accused as ‘Giyasuddin Mullah, Salim Naskar, Jahangir Khan’.
Giasuddin Mollah denied any knowledge of who was behind the assault on Saha, claiming he was ‘inside the counting centre’ at that time.
Mollah’s boss Mamata Banerjee is also in denial over the horrific post-poll pogrom where BJP’s Hindu workers and voters have been systematically targeted. She has claimed that there was ‘no incident of post-poll violence’ in the state.
An NHRC report has however said that there were several cases of rape and murder after the announcement of assembly election results. Accepting the recommendations of an NHRC panel, the Calcutta High Court had on August 19 ordered a CBI investigation into all cases of heinous crimes like rape and murder.
As per grassroot sources, over 50 people were murdered, 100s of women raped and molested, and over 40,000 people driven out of their homes in the mass violence unleashed by ruling party supporters and criminal elements. WB Police turned a blind eye to the violence, and even told victims to ‘settle‘ things with their attackers. Many victims did not file FIR due to police hostility and threat of further violence.
Meanwhile, the disgraceful role of the Indian news media as seen in their distorted, heavily censored coverage of the WB post-poll violence, continued in their reporting of Dhurjati Saha’s death as well. Our newspapers are still not convinced that Saha was ‘attacked’ and ‘assaulted’!
Even news agencies like IANS exhibit this same bias in the language, tone and use of scare quotes in their report on Saha’s death.
(With IANS inputs)
