Thaindian News

Kolkata, Oct 6 (IANS) A West Bengal court Tuesday ordered 14 days of police remand for two members of the Lalgarh Sanhati Mancha (Lalgarh Solidarity Platform) who were arrested here Monday night for allegedly backing the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) leader Chhattradhar Mahato.
Prasun Chattopadhyay and Raja Sarkhel were held for providing financial assistance to Mahato during the Lalgarh agitation. A substantial amount of those funds landed in the hands of the Maoists who virtually established a free zone in and around Lalgarh in last November.

“The Jhargram sub-divisional court remanded Chattopadhyay and Sarkhel to police custody for 14 days. The duo will be again produced in the court on Oct 19,” a senior state police officer said.

While being taken to the court in West Midnapore district, Chattopadhyay and Sorkhel shouted slogans saying, “We’ll not buckle down before the state administration. We had supported the Lalgharh movement and will continue to do so in future.”

“The state machinery cannot intimidate us like this. They can’t hold us like this,” Chattopadhyay said.

Sarkhel, considered another associate of Mahato, said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and central Home Minister P. Chidambaram had colluded to curb the “Lalgarh movement”.

“This arrest is illegal and we don’t agree to the logic of this arrest,” Sarkhel said.

Police said Chattapadhyay and Sarkhel were arrested on the basis of information provided by Mahato, who was arrested Sep 26 by a team of Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force (STF). Later, the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took him into their remand for interrogation.