TMC leader accused of assaulting guards

TT, Jalpaiguri, Nov. 11: The superintendent of the Jalpaiguri district hospital filed a police complaint, accusing a member of the district Trinamul youth committee of assaulting two security guards for denying him entry to the female ward after visiting hours this morning.

Bapi Singh, the Trinamul leader, filed a counter complaint, alleging that he had been thrashed by the guards and got himself admitted to the hospital. Police have detained both the guards, while Singh is under treatment at the hospital.

Sources said the morning visiting hours was from 7 to 9.

"Singh wanted to enter the female ward around 9.40am when the visiting time was over. Two guards at the entrance to the ward stopped Singh and another person accompanying him. Singh, however, forcibly tried to enter the ward and assaulted the guards," Gayaram Naskar, the hospital superintendent, said.

The Trinamul leader had wanted to visit Surabala Burman, a resident of ward 11 of Jalpaiguri, who had been admitted to the hospital following a cardiac arrest. Singh, who is her neighbour, went to the hospital, along with Sudin Burman, a relative of the patient.

"I told the guards that the patient is known to me and I would simply meet her and come back within a few minutes. They, however, misbehaved with me. As I protested, they assaulted me. I didn't hit them back," said Singh.

After the incident, he filed a complaint with Kotwali police station and got himself admitted to the hospital. Based on his complaint, the police detained Purnendu Roy and Rupen Narjinari, the two guards, who are also ex-servicemen.

Members of the Jalpaiguri Ex-servicemen Welfare Association met the hospital superintendent and raised protest against the detention.

"It is unfortunate that two of our members who were doing their duties have been detained by the police on the basis of a false complaint. On the other hand, the police have not acted on the complaint against the leader," Biplab Chakraborty, the president of the association, said.

The hospital superintendent said he had received a written complaint from the association. "Based on the complaint and what we saw this morning, we filed a complaint with the police against Singh. We have CCTV footage of the incident. We are ready to help the police with the footage during investigation. The two guards have been put off duty till the probe is completed."

Bholanath Pandey, the additional superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri said: "We received two complaints, based on which two persons have been detained. Our officials are looking into the allegations made by both the sides."