Tea garden manager assaulted, no arrest yet

A CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA: Gloom descended over entire tea industry in the Sadar North area following a daring attack on the manager of Fatikroy Tea Estate Joydeep Ganguly by a group of miscreants inside his quarter in the garden premises on Wednesday.

The intruders physically assaulted him and damaged properties of the quarter. A complaint has been lodged with the Lafunga police station and police is investigating the incident. However, none of the miscreants could be arrested so far.

The attackers allegedly accused him of having some illicit relation with a woman but after preliminary investigation the officer-in-charge of the Lafunga Police Station Samir Debbarma suspected there may be some other reasons behind this attack.

It is learnt that the police has already interrogated the woman with whom the attackers has related the name of the manager but she also denied any such relationship.

The Tea Association of India has sharply reacted to the incident and said the attack was part of a bigger conspiracy hatched by a group who want the manager should be removed from the garden.

P K Sarkar, secretary of the TAI in a statement said large scale looting of properties of the garden was going on and the new management of the garden has taken an initiative to revive it. The garden has already increased its production and good quantity of tea is being exported also.

He said the revival of the garden has hampered the interest of some people who were looting the garden properties for a long time and they are behind this conspiracy.

He demanded strong action against the attackers as the incident has caused fear among all the tea gardens of the area.