A group of locals attacked a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) with bricks and stones in Bhupatinagar in East Medinipur district of West Bengal on Friday and Saturday morning. Officers’ vehicles were vandalized, in which officers were injured. In December 2022, NIA officials reached the Trinamool Congress leader’s house to investigate a blast in Bhupatinagar. Three people died in that explosion.
The case came to light after two TMC leaders were arrested on Friday night for their alleged involvement in the Bhupatinagar blast case. The NIA team was surrounded by some protesters when they searched for some of the accused. NIA officials and Central Force were attacked with bricks and stones. The incident took place at 5:30 am. The Bhupatinagar blast took place in December 2022 at the house of a TMC leader in Naribila village under Bhupatinagar police station.
It is significant that this is the second incident within three months on the team of central agencies. On January 5, a group of over a thousand people attacked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CAPF personnel accompanying them. At that time the team went to Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal to raid and search the residence of suspended Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan in the ration scam. 55 days later Sheikh Shah Jahan was arrested.
Three ED officials were injured in the attack, who were admitted to the hospital. Sources said some local TMC leaders, including Bhupatinagar residents Balai Maiti and Monobrat Jana, were summoned by the NIA for questioning related to the December 2022 blasts.
But when these people ignored the summons, the NIA team reached Bhupatinagar on Saturday morning and took them into custody. When they were going back after putting them in the vehicle, a group of villagers stopped the vehicle and demanded the release of the detained people. But the NIA officials refused to release them. On this, a group of more than a hundred people present there attacked the vehicle and broke the windows of the vehicle. Two NIA officials reportedly sustained minor injuries in the attack.
However, they somehow managed to get out of there and reached the local police station and they are filing the FIR there.