Following the defeat of their party in the Assembly elections, TMC leaders have reportedly started returning “cut money” to people under pressure from the residents and BJP workers.

On Sunday, two TMC leaders in Pachagarh gram panchayat under the Mathabhanga-1 block reportedly returned nearly Rs 1.5 lakh to villagers, which they had collected from them in the previous government to facilitate land transactions, house construction, and securing various government schemes. It is alleged that money was collected, especially from BJP workers and supporters.

“I never thought I would get my money back,” said Sadhan Barman, a BJP supporter.

According to the villagers, two local TMC leaders – Tapan De and Babai Roy — had collected over Rs 85 lakh in the past few years from the villagers as “cut money”.

Suren Barman, vice-president of the BJP’s Mathabhanga No. 4 Mandal, said, “All the TMC leaders must also return the money they took from ordinary people.”

PTI reports: In another such incident, a TMC panchayat member returned Rs 5,000 each to 45 villagers at Patibunia village in Namkhana area of South 24 Parganas district.

Bikas Mondal, one of the affected villagers, said that after getting the first tranche of the Awaas Yojana funds of Rs 60,000, he built a part of a house when he was asked to pay Rs 5,000 to the panchayat member, or else the second tranche would not be transferred to his bank account.

He claimed that owing to similar threats, a total of 45 villagers had paid Rs 5,000 each for getting the second tranche of their Awaas Yojana benefit.

“On Sunday, we were called to the local school ground and the money was returned to all of us,” Mondal said.