A former Trinamool Congress councillor of Raiganj Municipality was arrested on Thursday night over allegations of attempting to forcibly occupy a shop and assaulting the trader and his family.
The accused, Abhijit Saha, was produced before a court on Friday, which remanded him to one day of police custody.
According to the complaint, Samir Debnath has been running an electronics shop from a rented premises in Debinagar, Raiganj, for the past 25 years. Debnath alleged that when the landowner expressed willingness to sell the property, he had shown interest in purchasing it. However, Saha later claimed that he had already bought the land.
“When I asked him for documents, he could not show any proof,” Debnath alleged.
Debnath further claimed that Saha and his supporters began pressuring him to vacate the shop and later started threatening him and his family.
The complainant alleged that on October 27 last year, around 9.30pm, Saha arrived at the shop with several youths and demanded that the shop be shut down. When Debnath protested, the group allegedly vandalised the shop, overturned furniture and goods, dragged him out by the collar and assaulted him.
Debnath also alleged that his wife, Purnima, was attacked when she tried to intervene. According to the family, the incident continued for nearly half an hour.
Following the incident, the family lodged a complaint at Raiganj police station. Debnath alleged that despite repeated threats from Saha afterwards, no action was initially taken by the police.
“Yesterday, he carried out another attack,” Debnath claimed after filing a second complaint.
Police later acted on the fresh complaint and arrested Saha.
The former councillor, however, denied all allegations. “He had encroached on a portion of the road in front of his shop. When I asked him to clear the space, he abused and attacked me,” Saha claimed.
District Trinamool Congress leaders declined to comment on the arrest. A party functionary said, “The law will take its own course.”
