Dhulagarh violence: BJP state secretary booked following demonstration

Weeks after a village at Dhulagarh, barely 28 km from state capital Kolkata, was hit by communal turmoil, a BJP Parliamentary delegation along with its state leaders and activists visited the area on Dec 24.

When police prevented the team from entering Dhulagarh citing law and order concern, BJP activists scuffled with them and blocked National Highway-6 (Kolkata-Mumbai highway) nearby for hours.

"BJP activists blocked NH-6 near Dhulagarh on December 24 and Sanjay Singh reportedly led the demonstration," a senior official of Howrah rural police told IBNS.

"Police from Sankrail Police Station have arrested Sanjay Singh to interrogate him about his role in the road blockade," he added.

Leaders of Howrah district BJP said that its state secretary went to Howrah City Police Station to complain about a neighbourhood problem in the late evening and when he was returning home, rural police detained him.

The BJP leader will be produced in a local court in Howrah on Thursday.

Earlier on Dec 12, people of two communities were engaged in a clash with each other at a village in West Bengal's Dhulagarh over a religious procession to mark the birth anniversary of Holy Prophet.

During the clash, few crude bombs were allegedly hurled by one community, several houses, shops and a temple were reportedly vandalized, locals were looted and motorcycles, cycles and few homes were set on fire.

According to locals, several people were injured after being beaten up by the attackers.

The violence lasted for two more days at the area, which triggered tension at the village, locals alleged.

A heavy police force along with Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed in the area, CrPC section 144 was imposed and few police pickets were set up at the village to control the situation.

Police have booked at least 58 people so far from the area for allegedly creating violence, while all types of movements have been restricted there to maintain law and order, according to reports.

Leaders of BJP and Congress went to Dhulagarh to witness violence hit area's situation on Tuesday and Monday respectively and both teams were prevented by the police from entering the village.

Following the violence, SP of Howrah (Rural division), Sabyasachi Raman Mishra, was reportedly replaced by another IPS officer Sunit Kumar.  

Later on Dec 29, West Bengal Police officially declared that the incident was an outcome of a dispute between two groups of people over a local issue.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)