Two groups of Trinamul Congress Workers’ Union clashed over the encroachment of the auto-toto route last night at Helabattala in Barasat, the headquarters of North 24 Parganas district in which a local Trinamul councillor, Debabrata Pal was severely injured.
Debabrata Pal was allegedly severely beaten up by the members of a rival group of the TMC. Hit by an iron rod, he was admitted to a hospital with severe head injury.
The situation reached to such a point that the police had to resort to lathi charge to stop the clashes. Due to the incident, auto traffic on Barasat-Barrackpore road has been closed since yesterday. However, the INTTUC district leadership did not want to accept the claim of group rivalry as a cause of the clash.
After the incident, the police arrested two people, but the main accused, Arindam Banerjee, is absconding. The police have started searching for him. It has been learned that for quite some time, there has been a dispute between INTTUC leader Arindam Bandopadhyay and Trinamul councilor Debabrata Pal over the encroachment of the auto-toto route from Helabattala Junction to Barasat Station Road. Debbrata is the councilor of the ruling party of Ward No. 10 if Barasat Municipality. Allegedly, Arindam, the leader of the opposing group of the councilor, introduced several auto-totos on that route without informing him. As a result, both parties started to increase their rivalries. In the meantime, Councilor Debbrat Pal came to the Helabattala intersection with his followers to protest the encroachment of the auto-toto route. Meanwhile, his rival group led by Arindam arrived at the spot, and a clash broke out between them.