Anindya’s arrest: Illegal activities will not be tolerated in Mamata regime

It may be mentioned that while taking part in the debate on Home (police) Budget in the Assembly, Chief Minister had mentioned that many leaders of her party were arrested as and when allegations of any sort of illegal activities had cropped up against them.

On Tuesday, Anindya Chatterjee, the Councillor of Ward 41 of Bidhannagar Municipality, was arrested on charges of demanding extortion of Rs 12 lakh from a resident of BD block for allowing him to undertake extension work of his house.

He was arrested soon after the aged owner of the house Santosh Lodh sought intervention of senior leaders of Trinamool Congress. The party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay wrote to the Mayor of the municipality stating it to be a “disgraceful” act and the arrest came after the entire incident reached the ears of the Chief Minister.

It may be mentioned that this is the first arrest of any councillor after Trinamool Congress came to power for the second term. But in the past five years, two councillors both of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and a former MLA of the party were arrested for their alleged involvement with activities that had caused inconvenience to the common people and led to deterioration of law and order situation in many cases.

The Councillor of Ward number 58 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Sambhunath Kow was arrested from Sikandarpur at Balia in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the murder of another Trinamool Congress leader Adhir Maity at Mathpukur in Dhapa. Allegations were raised against the police of helping Kow flee when he remained at large for some days. But, following the direction of the Chief Minister that “law will take its own course”, a team comprising senior officers of the police went to Balia following a tip-off and arrested him. He is still behind the bars.

Md Iqbal alias Munna, the then Councillor of Ward number 134, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of sub-inspector Tapash Chowdhury. Chowdhury was shot dead in broad daylight outside Hari Mohan Ghosh College at Garden Reach following a scuffle during filing of nomination for the election of the college. Even hulia was issued against him as he was at large for many days. Finally, he was arrested along with four others.

The former MLA and sabhapati of panchayat samity Arabul Islam was also not an exception. He was arrested in connection with an incident in which law and order situation had deteriorated at Rajarhat. The party had repeatedly cautioned him not to be errand as many times allegations of “harassing people” including teachers of a college were raised against him.

The repeated examples of taking action against leaders of the party and even those who are in key positions had made it quite clear for all that any “act” that will hamper the life of a common person will be taken with a serious note. According to political analysts, on Tuesday’s incident would act as an eye opener for those who will take chance like the Councillor of ward 41 of Bidhannagar Municipality.