Watch video: How a phrase used in Bihar-UP border indicated that the Barrackpore CP was targeted by armed persons

On Tuesday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that there was an attempt to kill Barrackpore Police Commissioner Manoj Verma. “Had I not seen the video, I wouldn’t have known,” Banerjee said at a press conference in the state administrative headquarters, Nabanna.

Though the CM had not mentioned it, it is learnt that she was referring to episodes of September 2019, exactly a year ago, when Verma was trying to quell a series of clashes in the area between various groups and attacks on police personnel. In one such attack, the Barrackpore CP fell on the ground accidentally and a voice is heard saying in the background – “mua de, mua de”. It is this phrase used in a dialect from a region in the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar border that helped understand that there were attempts to target Verma.

When the incidents were being probed, an officer pointed out that mua de in this region means “kill him”. That’s how the state investigators gathered that there were people in the Barrackpore area involved in the skirmish who wanted to shoot at and kill the police commissioner. Several persons were arrested from the footage in these videos and from pictures seen in CCTV cameras. Bombs were hurled and shots fired at.

One of the primary industries in Barrackpore is jute processing and there are several jute mills in the region. There is a high percentage of Hindi-speaking population. Many workers in the jute factory and in other industries who have moved into this area mostly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand over the past few decades comprise the main Hindi-speaking population.

According to a senior officer from Nabanna, the attempt on the life of Verma was in fact, informed to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in a report. The matter has even been informed in the courts by the state government. On Tuesday, Banerjee did not mention any names but added that every day there were use of bombs, firearms, threats and abuses and now a letter had been written to the state DGP. “When good work is done, then no letter is written,” Banerjee rued, adding that there were complaints of assault made before the government every day. “Why complaint of assault when nothing has happened?” she asked, adding that “people know everything”.

Officers indicated that Banerjee was perhaps referring to the letters written by the Governor to the DGP about law and order issues across the state, including that of the Barrackpore area. However, she rued that the Governor had not mentioned attacks on police officers nor criticised these.

The mention of Barrackpore CP by Mamata Banerjee in Tuesday’s press conference made it clear that she was speaking with reference to the Barrackpore Bharatiya Janata Party MP Arjun Singh. Once part of the Trinamool Congress, Singh had switched over to the BJP on being denied a ticket by Trinamool Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He won from the Barrackpore seat. For the past one year, the area has been on the boil, with incidents of clashes between Trinamool and BJP workers being reported frequently.

In September 2019, West Bengal Police had said that Singh and his son had “provoked” his supporters to attack the police. The police had alleged that Singh’s supporters attacked the police in Jagaddal area and the Barrackpore Police commissioner was also injured in the clash. A pistol was snatched and a bomb aiming at police was thrown from the roof of Arjun Singh’s house aiming at police, according to an official statement of the West Bengal Police last year. Arjun Singh on the other hand, sporting a bandage on his head, had alleged that Verma had attacked him.

Watch the video here: