12 arrested for allegedly stripping, beating 3 sadhus in West Bengal

Kolkata: Twelve persons were arrested on Friday for allegedly stripping and beating three sadhus, who were going to Ganga Sagar, in West Bengal’s Purulia district on Thursday, police said.

Police said that the incident happened because of some misunderstanding between the sadhus and three village girls due to difference their in languages.

“Five persons, including the three sadhus, were travelling in a vehicle. They stopped at a village named Gourangdih. They saw three village girls who were going to a local Kali temple and asked something. There was some misunderstanding because of the language problem and the girls thought the sadhus had come with some bad intention. They started shouting,” Avijit Banerjee, superintendent of police (SP) of Purulia district told the media.

Villagers soon gathered and started manhandling the sadhus. Their vehicle, in which they were travelling, was also damaged.

“We were going to Gangasagar. On the way some people stopped the vehicle. We were heckled and beaten up. The vehicle was also damaged. We would return to our ashram. We can’t go to Ganga Sagar as the vehicle has been damaged,” Madhur Goswami, one of the sadhus, told local media persons.

Gangasagar in South 24 Parganas district is located at least 360 km further south from Kashipur in Purulia district where the incident took place.

“We were coming from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. We couldn’t understand the language. Villagers started beating us. Had the police reached the spot a few minutes late, we would have got killed. The girls later came to the police station and apologised,” he added.

Millions of pilgrims would take the holly dip at Ganga Sagar, the confluence of River Ganges and Bay of Bengal, over the next two days to celebrate Makar Sankranti on January 15, the first major Hindu festival in the Gregorian calendar. Ganga Sagar Mela is the second largest assembly of pilgrims in the country after Kumbh Mela.

Police said that the sadhus were initially reluctant to lodge any complaint against the attackers, but police convinced them to lodge a complaint based on which a first information report (FIR) was registered on Friday. The arrested persons were produced before the court on Saturday.

“Five of them were sent to police custody for further interrogation while the rest have been sent to judicial custody by the court,” said an officer.

The incident snowballed into a major political row on Saturday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) attacking each other.

“Absolutely shocking incident reported from Purulia in West Bengal. In a Palghar kind lynching, sadhus traveling to Gangasagar for Makar Sankranti, were stripped and beaten by criminals, affiliated with the ruling TMC. In Mamata Banerjee’s regime, a terrorist like Shahjahan Sheikh gets state protection and sadhus are being lynched. It is a crime to be a Hindu in West Bengal,” Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT head wrote on his X handle.

“Those who attacked the Sadhus were all Hindus and (a) few from tribal community. 12 people arrested by police so far are all Hindus. No Muslim were involved in the scuffle. Area where the incident happened is a Hindu locality,” Riju Dutta, TMC spokesperson wrote on his X handle.

Police refused to share the names of the accused persons saying that further investigation was going on. A few videos went viral on social media in which the mob could be seen manhandling the sadhus.

“The BJP is spreading propaganda. In one video, one of the sadhus said that they were rescued and helped by the police and there is no political link. There was some misunderstanding because of the language problem. A rumour had spread that they could be kidnappers. Police rushed to the spot and some people were arrested. We respect saints. We would urge the BJP leaders not to engage in such dirty politics,” said Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson.