Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar meets BJP MP Khagen Murmu at a hospital where he is undergoing treatment following the recent attack on him, in Darjeeling, on Wednesday, October 8, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Five persons have been arrested in connection with the attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmakers at flood-hit Nagrakata earlier this week, Jalpaiguri Superintendent of Police (SP) Khandbahale Umesh Ganpat told The Hindu on Thursday.
The accused – Etwa Oraon alias Dharea (40), Govind Sharama (42), Akramul Haque, Sahanur Alam alias Mannan (30), and Tofayel Hossain alias Milan (36) – are all residents of Khayerbari in Nagrakata, the SP said. They were arrested between Wednesday (October 8, 2025) and Thursday (October 9, 2025), 48 to 72 hours after the incident.
On Monday, BJP MP from Malda Uttar Khagen Murmu and MLA and Chief Opposition Whip of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly Shankar Ghosh were attacked by a group of people during their visit to the flood-hit area.
Mr. Murmu sustained severe injuries and bleeding from his face. Both he and Mr. Ghosh were hospitalised in Siliguri. Their vehicle was also vandalised.
“Not a single person named in the First Information Report was arrested,” Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged on Wednesday outside the Assembly. “Trinamool has handed these people over to the police because there is pressure from the ST Commission and the [Lok Sabha Speaker],” he said.
Mr. Adhikari added that a petition had been submitted to the vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court seeking a probe into the incident by a Central agency.
Separately, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed before the division bench, seeking an investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and initiation of proceedings under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Both pleas are likely to be heard next week.
The arrests came after West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose said on Tuesday that the State government should arrest the culprits within 24 hours. Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju, during a visit to flood-hit Darjeeling, also said the Lok Sabha Speaker had sought an urgent report from the State government on the incident.
Responding to BJP’s allegations, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar described Mr. Adhikari’s remarks as “preposterous and condemnable.”
“If the complaint made by BJP leaders naming certain people does not match the arrests, then police will have to face questions from the court, where they will produce the accused and the case diaries… [The BJP] should leave it to the court of law. The police is a part of law enforcement that is answerable and accountable to the court of law. These people are unnecessarily politicising the whole matter,” Mr. Majumdar told The Hindu.
Trinamool continues fight in Tripura
A Trinamool Congress delegation visited the office of the Tripura Governor on Thursday and submitted a written memorandum concerning the attack on the party office in Agartala on Tuesday evening, allegedly by BJP workers.
“We could not meet the Governor because he had to leave for Delhi this morning. However, we met his secretary Mr. Chakma and discussed the matter with him. We also submitted a memorandum with our demands,” Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, a member of the delegation, said on Thursday.
In the memorandum submitted to Raj Bhavan, the party demanded an immediate judicial inquiry into the October 7 attack, swift arrest and prosecution of the culprits, accountability of police and civil administration, adequate security for its workers in Tripura, and a “public reaffirmation by the State government and law enforcement agencies of their constitutional duty to protect Opposition parties and safeguard democratic freedoms.”
Mr. Ghosh added that the delegation had also met the Director General of Police in Tripura the previous day. On Thursday, they filed a complaint regarding the vandalism at their office.
Published – October 09, 2025 09:41 pm IST
