Official thrashed, finger at Trinamul civic vice-chairman

Rathin Das in his torn shirt. Picture by Surajit Roy

TT, Malda, Nov. 20: The Trinamul vice-chairman of the Old Malda municipality allegedly assaulted a government employee who was holding a hearing in electoral roll revision this afternoon.

Rathin Das, a technician with the irrigation department, has filed a written complaint with the block development officer of Old Malda naming Swadhin Ghosh and alleging that he had assaulted him.

Ghosh has denied beating up Das, though he agreed that there was a scuffle.

Till evening, no police complaint had been lodged.

The incident took place around noon in the fisheries department office in the Mangalbari area of Old Malda. Today was the hearing concerning deletion and inclusion of names in the electoral rolls.

Das, 40, had been drafted for the job by the administration. There were three other government employees engaged in the poll roll revision.

According to Das, they started the work after the scheduled time of 11am. Just after noon, Ghosh and a group of about five men entered the office, he said.

“We were conducting the hearings when Swadhin Ghosh entered the room. I told him that a hearing was going on and he and the others should leave immediately. He identified himself as the vice-chairman of the Old Malda municipality and abused me in filthy language. I once again asked him to leave as all work had stopped. The vice-chairman grabbed me by the collar and punched me in the face. I was slapped, pushed to the floor and kicked. He even threw a chair at me,” Das said.

The moment Ghosh went outside, Das called up the BDO, Dulen Roy, on his mobile phone.

“The BDO came to the office and I told him that it was impossible to work when there was no guarantee of security. The BDO asked me to write a complaint which I did, naming Swadhin Ghosh,” Das said.

Ghosh said he had not beaten up any government employee, although there was a “minor scuffle” during the poll roll revision hearing.

“There was some tension that resulted in a minor scuffle which was because of a government employee. The hearing for the electoral rolls revision was scheduled to be held between 11am and 5pm. People had been queuing up since 10am. There were people who had other work to do as well. The staff started the hearing an hour late. I told the employee (Das) that there were more than 200 people waiting outside and he should speed up the process. He asked me to leave the room. I told him that I was the vice-chairman of the municipality. But he kept misbehaving with me,” Ghosh said.

According to him, those waiting in the queue also protested “and that resulted in a little pushing and shoving”. “I didn’t beat up anyone. Actually, the employee who was behaving in a rude way is a CPM supporter. As I am a Trinamul leader, he decided to bring false charges against me. I was just protesting that the hearing started an hour late,” Ghosh added.

Trinamul district president Moazzem Hossain said: “I have heard that there was some incident involving Swadhin Ghosh. I am making enquiries to ascertain what actually happened.”

BDO Dulen Roy said he would act according to the instruction from his superiors. “Beating up a government employee cannot be accepted. The employee has submitted a written complaint to me and I have sent it to higher officials. I will act according to the instructions from the higher authorities. The electoral roll revision work was stopped for a short while and then resumed,” Roy said.

Malda district magistrate Sharad Dwivedi said he had been informed of the incident by the BDO. “We are looking into it,” he added.