Tracing the person addressed in the internal messages leaked by members of Hindu Samhati on which National Herald had carried a story earlier , the NH investigative team contacted Santosh Kumar whose Facebook profile describes him as Convenor, BJP Trade Cell, South 24 Paraganas (W) and Observer at BJP, West Bengal, through the help of a right wing source.

He confessed to his involvement in planning and executing terror activities in written correspondence with this source and accepted that there were indeed plans to create communal disturbances after Shastra Puja on Vijayadashami. This year, a team consisting of some senior leaders has been formed which will be carrying out violent activities in different parts of Bengal, he said. Earlier, members of this group were responsible for attacking Tiljala mosque after which the Muslims were forced to stop their daily prayers for two days, he added. Though a shadowy group, he claimed it has the support of many members of the party. Most of the people named in the list hold prominent positions in the party. From general secretary of district BJP units to leader of its Mahila Morcha, leaders from almost every wing of the BJP found a place on this list disclosed by Santosh Kumar. The pictures of some of these people named by Santosh reveal a strange relationship between them and the BJP leadership in the state and the Centre. One or more of them are seen in photographs with BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Union Minister Smriti Irani and Roopa Ganguly, BJP MP from West Bengal. Why are these prominent national faces of the BJP clicking pictures with people who are named by their fellow party colleague of trying to foment communal trouble in the state?

Photo courtesy: Facebook

Photo courtesy: Facebook

Photo courtesy: Facebook

In the conversation, Santosh claimed Dilip Ghosh, West Bengal state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is well aware of these attacks on the mosques. He also claimed that he had personally handed over proposals to Dilip Ghosh to start arms factories in the state and on his plans to foment communal trouble by throwing beef into Hindu temples. Santosh seemed agitated that Dilip Ghosh, “in spite of having so much to capitalise on,” was not doing enough and instead just asked him to be in touch with the district president of the party.

He also said that when he approached district president Abhijit Das with his plans, he dissuaded him by saying, “Why do you do these things? These are the tasks of the RSS people.”

A dejected Santosh then wrote to one “Rajnathji” as can be seen from the screenshot of the conversation. One wonders if he was referring to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It is up to the Union Minister to clarify whether he had ever been approached by Santosh Kumar and what that correspondence, if any, was about. The team has recruited members from different parts of the state. Logistic support is provided by BJP’s allied organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal. According to Santosh, eight to 10 members of the present group have been trained by these groups to use weapons and carry out action during Durga Puja. The team consists of nearly 400 members from the South 24 Paraganas, including some prominent members of BJP’s Bengal unit. The names of the prominent members of this team as disclosed by Santosh are:

Arnav Mitra, Suraj Kumar Singh, Rajesh Jain Surana, Rashmi Gandhi, Sabita Chowdhary, Raja Bose, Rajarshi Lahiri, Gaurab Biswas, Sushil Shingham, Bhagwan Jha, Pradeep Sharma, Tapas Pal, Shivshankar Bhatt, Nimai Saha, Sunil Dwivedi, Manohar Pathak, Subhash Shaw, Monty, Prabir.

Photo courtesy: Facebook

What is perhaps more astounding is even President of India Ram Nath Kovind and West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi can be seen in pictures with some of these names revealed by Santosh.

Photo courtesy: Facebook

Right now, according to Santosh’s own admission, the group possesses two illegal country-made guns, smuggled from Bihar, and bombs. However, Santosh Kumar says getting more bombs as and when required is no problem. In his words, Nimai, Raja, Monty, Subhash, and Sushil will be arranging for the explosives while nearly all members have swords and lathis. He even poses with a gun in a few pictures.

On being asked the whereabouts of the bombs, he just said, “we haven't kept them in our homes.” The location remains undisclosed till now but Santosh claimed that all these facts are also known to one Kailashji. Now was he referring to Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP’s state in-charge of West Bengal? He said he approached Kailashji and apprised him of everything. However, in a different context, Santosh obliged our source with the screenshot of an e-mail complaint that he wrote against a party functionary. The e-mail is addressed to Kailash Vijayvargiya and BJP’s national joint secretary Shiv Prakash and has Amit Shah copied on the same along with Arnav Mitra, Suraj Kumar Singh and Rajesh Surana who were all mentioned by Santosh as members of his core team built to foment communal trouble in Bengal.

With BJP having gained a foothold in Bengal, it is now working to extend its footprint by raising the false alarm of Hindus being attacked by Muslims, thus instigating young Hindus to take up arms. While the evidence of the same can be found from various parts of Bengal since early 2016, the agenda is to create widespread trouble. The confessions made by Santosh Kumar is startling as they reveal that a terror module is at work where members of the party ruling at the Centre are involved in spreading terror and communal trouble in a state ruled by an Opposition party. (You can read the second part of the story here.)