Sandeshkhali row: TMC's Ajit Maity arrested day after being removed from post

Trinamool Congress leader Ajit Maity was on Monday arrested by the Sandeshkhali Police, a day after he was removed from the position of the head of the party's local unit. Ajit Maity was arrested following protests by a large number of women who levelled allegations of land grabbing and extortion against him.

READ | ‘Order from Delhi is to keep Sandeshkhali issue alive until....’: Trinamool

Speaking about the allegations against him, Ajit Maity said on Monday, "I'm repeatedly requesting with folded hands that if I have taken away someone's land or money, then give it in writing to the police. If I have made a mistake, I will apologise. If any evidence is found against me, I will take responsibility"

Visuals shared by the news agency ANI showed the villagers ransacking Ajit Mait's house and beating him with slippers amid protests in Sandeshkhali's Bermajur on Friday. Ajit Maity had claimed that the allegations levelled against him were baseless.

"I was attacked because I am a TMC leader. My bike was vandalised and they also attacked my wife. My daughter has exams but she is scared now that we will get attacked again. They also set fire to one of my storage rooms. They were making false allegations about me. Let there be a probe and if I am guilty, the police can arrest me," Ajit Maity told ANI earlier.

READ | Bengal ministers visit Sandeshkhali; fresh protests erupt in some pockets

Sandeshkhali, located at a distance of 100 kilometres from Kolkata, has been embroiled in protests against TMC leader Shahjahan and his aides. Women have levelled allegations of sexual assault and land grabbing against the TMC leader. Two ministers of the TMC-led government in Bengal, Partha Bhowmick and Sujit Bose, visited Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on Saturday, even as fresh protests erupted in some pockets.

“There are some grievances among the villagers. Their lands were grabbed and turned into fish farms. We are verifying the allegations. We will address them,” Bose told reporters.

Meanwhile a villager told HT, “We have no faith in police. They have been turning a blind eye all these years and have now come to placate us asking us to lodge complaints.”

The protests erupted in Sandeshkhali after local TMC MLA Shahjahan Sheikh went absconding following ED raids at his premises. In its defence TMC has said that it is not shielding the local leader who has been accused of “sexual abuse and land grab” by villagers in West Bengal’s restive Sandeshkhali.

“The TMC is not shielding Shahjahan Sheikh… We have a zero-tolerance policy against anyone committing any crime,” party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said on Sunday.

(With agencies' inputs)