TMC leader accused of tying up and dragging Bengal sisters on road arrested after four days

india

Updated: Feb 06, 2020 23:33 IST

Four days after a video clip showing two women being dragged on a road by ropes tied to their feet triggered public outrage and prompted the Calcutta high court to seek a report, the police in South Dinajpur district arrested the main accused, Amal Sarkar, the deputy chief (Up Pradhan) of Nandanpur gram panchayat run by the state’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC).

“Sarkar has been arrested but we are still looking for two other accused,” said Wangden Bhutia, additional superintendent of police, Dakshin Dinajpur.

Two others, Tapan Sil and Gobinda Sarkar, were arrested on Monday.

On Tuesday, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kailash Vijayvargiya had led a 19-member delegation to meet President Ramnath Kovind and draw his attention to the incident.

One of the victims seen in the video, Smriti Kana Das (38), a resident of Nandanpur, had named five people in a police complaint on February 1 and alleged that she earned the ire of the Panchayat deputy chief for objecting to a road proposed to pass through their land.

Das thanked the police on Thursday for arresting the main accused, Amal Sarkar.

State minister Rajib Banerjee had earlier said that the culprits would not be spared and that the party had decided to expel Sarkar.