india

Updated: Feb 18, 2019 09:34 IST

Bengal Police have arrested a BJP leader of Birbhum district three days after he alleged his daughter was abducted, following which his supporters chased down a local Trinamool Congress MLA Manirul Islam on Saturday, forcing him to take shelter in a police station.

“It clearly was not a case of abduction. It was all staged. We rescued the daughter from Dalkhola area in Malda district and have arrested her father, a BJP leader, and two of his associates. The associates had met him a few days before the staged abduction to finalise the plan,” said Tanmay Sarkar, additional superintendent of police, Birbhum.

On Thursday, Prathama Batabyal, 23, a school teacher and daughter of BJP leader Suprabhat Batabyal, was allegedly kidnapped at gun point from her home in Labhpur, about 180 km from Kolkata.

The arrested persons are Batabyal, Raju Sarkar and Dipankar Mondal.

“The police had been looking out for Batabyal for quite some time in connection with a case against him. Based on information gathered so far by interrogating the arrested persons and questioning the woman, we believe the abduction was staged to put pressure on the police to stop looking for him,” Sarkar said.

On Saturday, Batabyal’s followers chased Manirul Islam’s car and forced him to take shelter inside Labhpur police station, which was soon gheraod by more than a hundred BJP workers. Agitating BJP supporters also pelted stones that damaged several vehicles including that of the MLA, forcing the police to resort to lathicharge.

Incidentally, Trinamool Congress’s Birbhum district committee president Anubrata Mondal has alleged on Sunday that Islam, too, was also complicit in the conspiracy.

“The woman has told after being rescued that her father and Islam were both involved in planning her abduction. He (Islam) might be my party’s MLA but he is not Laat Saheb and I must tell the truth. Islam was complicit in this,” Mondal alleged.

BJP’s Birbhum district president Ramkrishna Roy said he will comment after finding about the incident in detail.