Siliguri abduction case: Trinamool says accused not related to party

DARJEELING: Declining allegations, Trinamool Congress on Friday claimed that the opposition parties were trying to malign the party's image by labeling the accused in Siliguri abduction case as TMC party men.

Incidentally on January 13, 19-year-old Ritankar Singha had gone missing from Ward number 38, Bhaktinagar under Siliguri Municipal Corporation. On January 14, the family received a ransom call of Rs 40 lakh. The following day, they lodged a complaint at the NJP police station.The police swung into action and based on call records and CCTv footages, they arrested Tapan Das and Ratan Pal from Fuleshwary. Interrogation of the arrested led to the arrest of another person, identified as Raj Singh, from a café in Bharatnagar, where the abduction plot had been hatched. Police raided a locked flat in Deshbandhupara from where the victim was recovered in an unconscious state. He was handed over to his family by the the Jalpaiguri court on Friday. It has been learnt that the accused had added drugs to the victim's drinks in the café in Bharatnagar. When he had fallen unconscious, they had taken him to the flat .

The incident has raked up a debate with the CPI(M) and BJP claiming that Das and Pal had earlier been spotted in the election campaign of the TMC party in Ward 24 of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation. "Trinamool is a very large party. There are more than 15000 joining applications pending in the Darjeeling district. Despite having a very stringent system in place, sometimes there are persons who infiltrate the party for their own selfish needs. However, these two are in no youth committee in the TMC. We demand stringent action against the perpetrators," stated Papia Ghosh, TMC president, Darjeeling district.