A 22-year-old man was brutally assaulted by a group of men in Belgharia’s Colony Bazar area on Friday night after he allegedly refused to pay donation for Ganesh Puja, said police.
Aditya Mohanty, a resident of Ward Number 25 under Kamarhati Municipality, was admitted to a hospital with severe injuries in his head and eyes.
According to the police, Mohanty’s family alleged that their son had been protesting against anti-social activities in the local club and had refused to pay a donation of Rs 50,000 for Ganesh Puja demanded by local goon Rohit Singh. “My son was returning home on his bike when five to six men, who were sitting in the local club, attacked him. One of them pushed his bike and injured his leg, and then started hitting him with iron rods and bricks. They rained punches on him, which injured his eye. They hit his head with a brick. They then pushed him in a drain. If we had not reached the spot, they could have killed my son,” Aditya’s father Ashok K Mohanty said.
The police arrested Rohit Singh, Sayan Das, and Sourav Dutta on Saturday in connection with the incident from Barrackpore and Taki.
The Barrackpore court on Sunday granted all three one-day judicial custody. The police have sought their custody to interrogate them about the whereabouts of the other accused, who are still absconding.
A total of six persons have been named in the FIR.
According to police sources, Singh was not present at the scene of the incident, but allegedly ordered his men to assault Mohanty. Singh has a history of alleged criminal activities, with over four cases registered against him since 2017, including allegations of extortion, assault, and threatening local businessmen.
Singh, meanwhile, claimed that Mohanty had passed lewd comments on one of the assailants’ wives. “All the allegations are false. What job does the boy do that we will ask for such a huge amount of donation? There are many who come to this local club to give donations. There are some who want to stop these pujas.”
Singh accused Mohanty of passing lewd comments on a woman and claimed that her husband had beat him up. He, however, refused to identify the man. “I know them. One of them told me that Mohanty had passed some lewd comment against his wife, so he assaulted Mohanty. But I am not involved in this. I was not even present there,” Singh claimed.
Local councillor Arpita Ghosh said she came to know about the incident through social media. “I spoke to the victim’s family and asked them to go to the police. All the culprits should be booked and they should be punished. I cannot say who was there or who is responsible as I do not know if the police carried out their investigation,” Ghosh said.