A court in West Bengal’s Jhargram district on Wednesday denied the CID custody of three Kurmi leaders and eight others of the Kurmi community arrested in connection with the attack on the convoy of Trinamool Congress’ General Secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee.
The district court has remanded all the 11 arrested individuals to judicial custody till June 12.
For the second time, the CID plea seeking their custody was turned down by the court.
On May 26, Abhishek Banerjee’s convoy was attacked at Salboni in West Midnapore district during his mass-outreach programme. In the attack, the vehicle of West Bengal minister Birbaha Hansda, which was part of the convoy, was damaged.
The very next day, while addressing a rally at the same place, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the BJP and the Union government were trying to unleash Manipur-like violence in West Bengal by instigating the Kurmis against the people of other tribal communities.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Kurmi leader Ajit Mahato claimed that the state administration had been trying to create tension among the people from Kurmi and Santhal communities and the “main brain” of the conspiracy was operating from Kolkata.
He also said that agitations of the Kurmi community in West Bengal will continue both in demand for the granting of Scheduled Tribe status as well as the release of their leaders arrested in this connection.
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