Tealeaves grabbed as grower refuses to pay

Farman Ali. (Biplab Basak)

TT, Jalpaiguri, June 8: A small tea grower has alleged that a local Trinamul leader, whose demand for money was turned down, took away his truck of fresh tea leaves, sold it and pocketed the cash.

Farman Ali, secretary of Trinamul's local committee in Jalpaiguri's Rajganj block, has been arrested and remanded in judicial custody.

The all-too-familiar allegation by a businessman against a Trinamul leader came at a time the chief minister has asked industry to get cracking in Bengal.

"You (industry) all are doing business in Bengal. We have been in the government for five years. Who has asked for money to do work, tell me? If there is one good place to do business, it is Bengal. Sometimes local interest works. Bring it to our notice, we will take care," Mamata said yesterday while meeting industrialists in Calcutta.

Farman had demanded Rs 30,000 from Panna Das, a small tea grower who sells his leaves at a bought-leaf factory that processes the tea and sells it.

Farman wanted the cash for a victory rally to celebrate the win of Khageswar Roy, the Trinamul MLA of Rajganj at the recently-held Assembly elections.

Farman, who spoke to newspersons on the court premises, today said he had "been falsely implicated.... I am not involved in any such activity."

"For the last few days, he had approached Panna Das and asked for Rs 30,000. The Trinamul leader said that he needed the money to organise the rally. When my employer refused to pay, Farman threatened that he will collect the money from my employer by some other means," said Ashish Sengupta, the manager of Das's tea business.

On June 6, Ali stopped a truck carrying around 1,600kg of tealeaves from Das's plantation to a bought-leaf factory for sale.

"He and some of his aides took possession of the vehicle, took the truck to a bought-leaf factory where Farman sold the leaves and took the money. After this incident, my employer filed a complaint at Rajganj police station yesterday," Sengupta said.

According to small tea growers, the average selling price of tealeaves was Rs 16 a kg on June 6. "We believe, Ali could make around Rs 25,000 by selling the tealeaves," an industry source said.

Trinamul sources said Ali had switched to Trinamul from the CPM about three months back.

Police arrested Ali yesterday night.

Akash Magharia, the superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri, said: "A person was arrested yesterday for forcibly taking possession of a vehicle carrying tealeaves and for selling the tealeaves. He has been produced in the court today."

District Trinamul leaders said Farman was not in the party. "I do not know any Farman Ali. We are trying to find out what exactly happened. If anybody from our party is involved in such wrongdoing, the party will interfere and law will take its own course," MLA Khageswar Roy said.

Police sources in Rajganj said they are trying to locate the vehicle's driver to obtain more details about the case.

"There are a number of bought-leaf factories in Rajganj block. We will speak to the driver to know where the tealeaves were sold," an officer said.

The Jalpaiguri Zilla Kshudra Cha Chashi Samiti said such an incident had never happened in the district.

"We condemn the manner in which the vehicle was intercepted and tealeaves were sold. When Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee is so vocal against syndicate raj and political highhandedness, these incidents are undesirable," Bijoygopal Chakraborty, president of the samiti, said. "We hope there will be no repetition of such incidents in future."