Tripura police headquarters gheraoed after bulldozer attack on Congress worker’s home

Congress state president Birajit Sinha alleged BJP-backed goons were behind the attack and that attacksers who targeted Opposition leaders and supporters had a minister’s support. Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Sushanta Chowdhury rejected the claims saying Sarkar had failed to provide any evidence though his home had been under CCTV surveillance.

“He filed a complaint against some 30 people and said BJP workers attacked his home. Let police investigate and submit a report. There is no prima facie evidence that any BJP activist was involved in such an incident. It is totally fabricated,” he said.

In the evening, Youth Congress workers blocked the entrance of the police headquarters demanding the culprits’ arrests and the suspension of a subdivisional police officer under whose watch Congress MLA Sudip Roy Barman was assaulted on August 11, also in Jirania, home turf of Chowdhury. The Youth Congress also served police an “ultimatum” of 72 hours.

Chowdhury also said CPM leader Manik Sarkar’s visit to the attack site on Monday proved that the communists were trying to regain lost territory with clandestine help from the Congress. The CPM, for its part, clarified that the former chief minister and Opposition leader had dropped by Sarkar’s home as it was close to the house of Madhusudhan Das, a party colleague attacked a day before. Senior Congress leaders also visited Sarkar’s home.

Sarkar was instrumental in ensuring Chowdhury’s victory from the Jirania Assembly constituency in 2018, according to the Congress state chief. Sarkar was earlier booked under the National Security Act in 2018, a few months after the BJP-IPFT combine formed the government. After he was released on bail four and a half months later, he said he was a victim of a political conspiracy hatched by his own party colleagues.

A contractor, Sarkar was with the Congress till 2016, when he joined the Trinamul Congress. He switched to the BJP in 2017 but went back to the Congress six months ago. The latest attack was the fifth on him since he quit the saffron party.