Kolkata: The youth who slapped Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was arrested Monday on various charges including attempted murder even as he lay hospitalised battling for life after being brutally assaulted by a mob.
But none of those who almost lynched Debasish Acharya after he hit Abhishek Banerjee on the dais of a Trinamool Youth Congress (TYC) public meeting Sunday, were taken into custody by police, who only slapped “culpable homicide” charges against some “unknown persons”.
State Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee virtually justified the mob fury, drawing parallel with the killing of Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country after then prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. A top ranking police officer claimed Acharya has links with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
However, Abhishek Banerjee – head of TYC – Monday forgave the assaulter and appealed to the party workers to maintain peace throughout the state.
“At a personal level, let me forgive the perpetrator and wish him early recovery. Today is a new day, let us look ahead. I also urge my co-workers to maintain peace, harmony throughout the state and be restrained in their actions,” Banerjee wrote on his official Facebook page.
Acharya, a resident of Tamluk in East Midnapore district, is now under treatment in Tamluk Hospital with multiple head injuries after he was mercilessly thrashed by a mob of purportedly Trinamool workers at the public meeting venue in Chandipur of the district Sunday.
Attending doctors said Acharya has sustained three deep wounds in his head besides injuries at other parts of the body and kept oscillating between consciousness and unconsciousness.. (IANS)
