A day after Congress workers vandalised the Murshidabad district magistrate (DM)’s office, the Murshidabad police on Friday filed FIRs against Union minister of state for railway Adhir Chowdhury, 22 Congress leaders and around 1,200 Congress workers.
Reacting to the development, a defiant Mr Chowdhury said that he stood by what he did and was ready to go to jail. Mr Chowdhury said. “I stand by what I did. I am ready to face any consequence. I am ready to go to jail. It was expected that a case will be filed against me. Earlier also I had faced a number of charges.”
However, at the same time, he added: “I had tried to pacify the mob. Everybody witnessed the role played by me. It was appreciated by local officials.” Mr Chowdhury further claimed that when they had gone to submit a memorandum to DM Rajiv Kumar, they were told that he was having lunch and so he would not take their memorandum. “If I were the chief minister, I would have suspended him,” an angry Mr Chowdhury said.
In Kolkata, state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said that no Congress worker was involved in the vandalism. He defended Mr Chowdhury and said that he had in fact controlled the mob.
Meanwhile, superintendent of police, Murshidabad, Humayun Kabir said although no complaint was lodged by the DM, on the basis of the video footage showing the destruction caused at the DM bungalow the police had started a suo moto case under several charges, including some non-bailable ones.