Sandeshkhali Reaches Parliament, Privileges Committee Summons Bengal Top Cops; TMC Calls Out Sukanta Mazumdar’s ‘Fall’ A Drama and PR Stunt

The Privileges and Ethics committee of the Lok Sabha on Thursday has summoned senior police officers of Bengal over a complaint filed by BJP MP and Bengal state president Dr Sukanta Mazumdar alleging “misconduct, brutality and causing life threatening injuries to him” during a confrontation with police personnel after he was stopped from going towards the trouble torn Sandeshkhali on Wednesday, February 14. 

The notice by the Privileges Committee was given to state DGP Rajeev Kumar, SP Basirhat Dr Hossain Mehedi Rahman and Additional SP Partha Ghosh, asking them to appear before the committee on Monday, February 19 for “oral evidence”. Mazumdar was admitted to the hospital after the chaos outside a lodge where he was putting up in Taki, roughly 35kms ahead of Sandeshkhali, after which BJP claimed that he had fainted due to a fall. While the BJP state president wanted to visit Sandeshkhali, he was denied permission by police stating Section 144 being in place at specific 19 locations in Sandeshkhali. 

Videos that later surfaced showed during the chaos outside the lodge, Mazumdar got up on the bonnet of a police vehicle parked nearby. As he started addressing the BJP workers and media, two police personnel from the combat force climbed on the car to get him down. Both standing on the right side of Mazumdar, one with arm spread in-front of him when suddenly a woman wearing a brown saree got on the car and pushed both the police personnel one after the other. While the second officer was about to fall, he tried holding on to Mazumdar with his already stretched arm but the woman had freed the leader; both the woman and Sukanta fell and sat down on the bonnet of the car. Sukanta then immediately lied down on the car. Within seconds, his personal security people rescued him from there and took him away to his car. In the videos Mazumdar could be seen walking down along with his security after the scuffle that led to his ‘fall’, 

The Lok Sabha Privileges committee has forwarded the same notice to Ministry of Home Affairs requesting to “ensure” the senior police officers appear before the committee, since all of them are IPS officers. 

TMC has reacted sharply over the notice calling out the “fall” of Mazumdar a PR stunt and drama. “The whole country has seen how Sukanta Mazumdar fell down. His own colleague, that lady had pushed officers and dragged him down on the bonnet. No police had hit him and yet this notice from privileges committee. Where was this committee sleeping on October 3, last year when TMC delegation led by Abhishek Banerjee was manhandled by Delhi police during our peaceful demonstration at the office of Sadhvi Niranjan”, asked TMC leader Dr Santanu Sen. 

Sandeshkhali has snowballed into a massive political showdown between TMC and the BJP after violence erupted in the humble village last week, with women leading a protest against TMC leaders Seikh Shahjahan and his associates, alleging years of torture and oppression. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday while assuring thorough investigation into all the complaints by the people, has called it “vulture politics” played by BJP trying to “create rift between the tribals and the minority communities in the area”