Durgapur, June 17: Residents of a Durgapur colony have complained to the police and the Burdwan district administration that Trinamul Congress activists were threatening them as they voted for the CPM in the June 3 civic elections.
The people of the Uttaran housing colony in Bidhannagar also alleged that the Trinamul activists often passed lewd comments on women and had beaten up a youth on June 10 when he went to a mobile phone store to recharge his cellphone.
"They are all known Trinamul workers. They forced me to go to their Bamunara party office on a bike where another group was waiting. They punched me in the face and eyes repeatedly. They ran away when I fell to the ground," said Arif Munsari.
The assault, Arif said, had left him with a swollen eye and pain in the abdomen.
Arif's father Ayub said though he had lodged a police complaint, the Trinamul activists were roaming freely.
"I lodged an FIR against five persons, all Trinamul workers, at the Kanksa police station. I also submitted the medical report of my son's injury. The police advised me to take my son to the Durgapur subdivisional hospital. But the goons are roaming free and threatening me to withdraw the complaint," he said.
The CPM has managed to keep its vote in the Uttaran housing colony, where nearly 60 families live, despite the strong anti-Left wind in the steel city. The CPM got a lead of 94 votes in the colony but lost the ward to Trinamul.
Homemaker Papiya Das accused the police of turning a blind eye to the terror unleashed by the Trinamul workers under the leadership of party's newly elected councillor Pramod Sarkar. "After the municipal polls, the terrorising has increased. The police also refuse to look into our complaints as they are against the ruling party. We have sent a letter to the state human rights commission," she said.
Pankaj Roy Sarkar, the CPM local committee secretary, said the police were working "shamelessly" for the ruling party. "The Trinamul workers have targeted those who have voted for us. Is voting for the CPM a crime in Trinamul's democracy? The police are also shamelessly working at their behest," he said.
Burdwan superintendent of police S.M.H. Meerza said he would ask the Kanksa police (the Uttaran housing colony falls under it) to look into the complaint of the assault on Arif and take necessary action.
The additional deputy commissioner of police in Durgapur, S.S. Sarkar, also assured that complaints of threats and intimidation would be looked into, adding that the assault on Arif did not take place in the Asansol-Durgapur commissionerate area.
However, Trinamul MLA and the party's Burdwan president Apurba Mukherjee said the CPM was trying to malign them after losing the civic polls.
"The people have rejected them and now they have no work but to accuse and malign us. We never told the police to work in favour of our party supporters. The allegations are baseless," he said.