Kolkata, February 7, 2013 – Union Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Thursday led an irate mob to ransack the office of the District Magistrate in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.
Congress activists went on a rampage, vandalising the DM’s bungalow and vehicles in Berhampore town.
The incident took place when a Congress delegation went to the DM’s office to submit a memorandum. The situation turned violent after the DM Rajiv Kumar refused to accept the memorandum and asked the Additional District Magistrate to receive it.
Agitated Congress workers started a sit-in outside his office while some of the protesters were seen throwing stones at the office premises and damaging some flower pots.Later, Chowdhury intervened and gave a 30-minute ultimatum to Kumar to receive the memorandum, threatening a bigger agitation if he failed to do so. The minister allegedly led the mob to vandalise the district administrative office, sources said.
“Finally the DM accepted our memorandum. We, along with MP Abhijit Mukherjee and Mannan Hossain, and senior state Congress leader Abdul Mannan submitted it to Kumar,” state Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president told Mail Today.
Murshidabad is considered a Congress bastion in West Bengal while Chowdhury, a local strongman and Congress MP, is popularly known as the Robin Hood of Berhampore.
Soon after the incident, Trinamool Congress MP in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien said on a popular social networking site, “The party that delivers pious sermons in Jaipur also indulges in mayhem in Murshidabad.”
