JALPAIGURI: Union minister of state for home Nisith Pramanik's Bhetaguri home on the Cooch Behar-Dinhata state highway turned a fortress on Sunday as Trinamool workers staged an 8-hour protest over the death of a Rajbanshi youth in BSF firing last year.
Police imposed CrPC Section 144 in a 150m radius, and deployed RAF and drone surveillance. Central forces were stationed at the house and none was allowed to enter. The minister was not home at the time of the stir. No untoward incident was reported.
Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, at a recent meeting in Cooch Behar, had declared that the party would fight for 24-year-old Prem Kumar Barman, who was killed on December 24, 2022. Prem's father Siben and brother Sukumar joined the protest on Sunday, in which around 3,500 people took part.
"Our partymen will show Nisith Pramanik black flags whenever he will step into villages. This will continue till Prem gets justice," said Dinhata MLA and state cabinet minister Udayan Guha.
Trinamool in a statement said: "We condemn the apathy of MoS Nisith Pramanik towards Rajbangshi community and BJP's sheer ignorance towards their plight. We demand accountability for the shooting of Prem Kumar Barman by the BSF without any valid reason."
The postmortem report said 180 metallic pellets were found in Prem's body. The autopsy was videographed and the cause of death was stated as being due to the effects of "antemortem gunshot injuries, homicidal in nature".
The agitation at Pramanik's home drew sharp reactions from BJP. Party state president Sukanta Majumdar said: "If they do not refrain from stooping so low, we will be forced to gherao Abhishek Banerjee's residence within 48 hours. We will arrange a crowd double the size of what they had today."
"If you want to do politics, you can gherao administrative offices, even the office of the MHA in Delhi. Why trouble family members of a politician? Nisith Pramanik has a small kid," he added. BJP sources later indicated that protests could be held by the party's south Kolkata unit on February 21.
Trinamool MP Santanu Sen said: "If they try to take the law in their own hands, the law will take its own course." Also on Sunday, a Cooch Behar youth was arrested in connection with an uncorroborated viral audio clip from a day ago, in which a speaker was heard telling another to open fire at the protest. The arrested man has been identified as Tapan Burman. Cooch Behar police superintendent Sumit Kumar said: "There was a rumour on social media. We investigated it. We will question the person arrested for more details."
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