BJP MPs stopped from entering troubled Basirhat

Kolkata, July 8: A three-member team of BJP MPs was stopped and detained by the police enroute to violence-hit North 24 Pargas on Saturday. A heated argument broke out between the team and police as they were stopped at Michaelgar on the outskirts of Basirhat.

The police told the delegation comprising Meekshi Lekhi, Om Mathur and Satyapal Singh, “If you go further, there could be problem.” “So are you accepting that there is problem ahead in Basirhat?” posed Lekhi amid the altercation. “We know the law. We are MPs. We have certain privileges. So if you stop us like that, you may be in trouble tomorrow,” cautioned Singh. “Let us go with you,” said Mathur.

The team was set up on Thursday by party President Amit Shah to visit Basirhat and look into incidents of commul violence in the state. Lashing out at the Trimool Congress-led West Bengal government, Lekhi said: “There was no Section 144 imposed in the area, no papers were shown to us on why we were being detained when we hadn’t committed any offence.” “Truth won’t change whatever the Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) says. A BJP worker who has been stabbed (in the commul violence) is hospitalised,” Lekhi told reporters there. (IANS)