CPI-ML Red Star leader Alik Chakraborty was arrested by West Bengal Police from Odisha’s Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Chakraborty heads the party’s activities in West Bengal and is the spokesperson of Jomi-Jibika-Bastutantra O Poribesh Rokkha Committee (committee for protecting life, livelihood, ecology and environment). A senior official in the Bengal government confirmed the news of his arrest.
The CPI-ML Red Star has been leading the agitation at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas against the setting up of a power grid in the area.
In January 2017, at Bhangar, approximately 35 km from Kolkata, thousands of people came out to protest, placing tree trunks on the roads, villagers pushed police vans into ponds, pelted stones and prevented them from entering the area. Many police vehicles were set ablaze. Policemen and villagers were both injured on that day.
The villagers protested the setting up of a power grid by the Power Grid Corporation of India, a Central government PSU. The area has been on the boil since then.
Independent candidates backed by the Jomi-Jibika-Bastutantra O Poribesh Rokkha Committee contested the rural polls this time, and were permitted to file nominations through WhatsApp after allegedly being prevented from doing so by supporters of the ruling party in the state. The Independent candidates won five out of eight gram panchayat seats.
After Alik Chakraborty’s arrest, Sharmistha Chowdhury from the Committee said that he had gone to Bhubaneswar for treatment. Chowdhury said she was in Delhi at the moment, and added, “This (arrest) will prove costly to the state.”
She also added that the police had been slapping hundreds of cases against Alik Chakraborty for the past one and a half years, including under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. There were nearly 200 “false” cases against him, she said.
The Committee is planning an agitation programme to protest Chakraborty’s arrest.