A number of posters in Bengali bearing a two-line threat “If you join BJP, you will be beheaded”sparked off further tension in Burdwan town this morning, especially because the posters were found stuck on the walls in the localities under Ward 13 of the Burdwan Municipality where a Trinamul Congress leader was allegedly killed over the cut-money issue.
Local residents were panic stricken this morning when they found the posters, on white paper in blue ink, and apprehended fresh political disturbances in Boronilpur locality where a Trinamul Congress booth committee member Purnendu Chatterjee was found hanging from a tree, with the many injury marks on the body on 26 June.
Chatterjee had left for his daughter’s place at Behala in Kolkata on 19 June after a group of BJP cadres had raided his house demanding refund of cut-money he had allegedly collected from some local beneficiaries. Another BJP group allegedly had forced Pal’s son Tanmoy and wife Sandhya to vacate their house and the cadres had written the word ‘cut money’ on the wall of his house.
The police had arrested five BJP cadres, including Tarok Das and his wife Abha and three others on charges of murder and they were sent to judicial custody till 11 July. Meanwhile, the posters found in localities like Boronilpur in the town and the adjacent Bottalla in Shaktigarh police limits sparked off fresh tension in the area. The police collected some posters for investigation.
Shyamal Roy, a district committee leader of BJP said: “The Trinamul Congress has put up the posters to create a fear psychosis in the area as our party is gaining mass support day by day.”
Swapan Debnath, district Trinamul Congress president said: “The BJP itself has been putting up such posters here and there in a bid to create negative publicity for us.”
Similar posters carrying warnings to BJP sympathisers were found in Rathtala, Padmapukur in Wards 23 & 24 on 7 June morning.