TMC worker who questioned Mamata arrested

According to fellow villagers,before leaving for the meeting that day,Choudhury had told them he wanted to make sure he was able to get across his grievances to the CM. He wanted Mamata to know he never got the Rs 2 a kg rice he was entitled to as well as wanted to ask her for a job as a home guard. He also meant to tell her about the steep fertiliser prices making farming difficult.

As Choudhury repeatedly got up to interrupt CM while she addressed villagers in this Maoist belt — getting once onto the bamboo barrier to make himself heard — Mamata got angry and shouted back: “I have information Maoists have sent agents to create disturbance at this meeting. Catch him. Do not let him create trouble.”

Choudhury was immediately taken out of the meeting ground by the police but released. On Thursday,however,he was again summoned to the Belpahari police station where his brother Alok is posted as a home guard. On Saturday morning,he was put under arrest.

The incident comes two months after Mamata angrily walked out of a CNN-IBN live talk show calling some students who had asked uncomfortable questions “Maoists”.

Belpahari Inspector Nirmal Majhi said Choudhury had tried to “enter the high-security zone”,used “threatening language” and “pushed” Majhi when resisted.

Belpahari villagers said the Choudhury family has been a Trinamool supporter since 2009. A bus conductor once,Shailaditya had lately been without work. He has about a bigha of land.

Villagers denied he had tried to break through the barricades. Said Arabinda Mahato,a local leader: “I was sitting where Shiladitya was… His only fault was he got excited when Didi tried to shout him down. But he never tried to break the security cordon or obstruct any policeman.”

“He was angry and asking how he would survive if the price of fertilisers keeps mounting. He asked for how many days the government would supply rice at Rs 2 per kg which he never got for a day. He was immediately taken out of the place by the police after Didi ordered them to do so.”

A senior police officer said that while they had not found anything to show Choudhury had Maoist links,he had been arrested for “creating disturbance”. “Since we were very busy with the CM’s programme in Belpahari,he was arrested today,” said the officer.

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