Bengal BJP MLA who opposed extortion hospitalised after assault by party workers

A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from West Bengal’s Debra, Subhashis Om, was hospitalised with multiple injuries on Monday evening after he was allegedly assaulted by a group of party workers, police said.

The legislator has named six people in a handwritten complaint to the Debra police station, a West Midnapore district police officer said.

The MLA was initially admitted to the Debra hospital with injuries to the head and arms, and later shifted to the Midnapore district hospital, the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

“I was trying to stop some party workers from filing police cases against each other when I was attacked… Our mission is to end extortion,” the legislator told reporters at the hospital where he was being treated.

BJP activists in Debra said the MLA had received complaints against a section of party workers while overseeing work at a government office on Monday afternoon. He left for the police station but was allegedly assaulted on the way.

State panchayat and rural development minister Dilip Ghosh, also an MLA from the district, said the party would deal with it. “If there was a quarrel between two groups, then our party will look into it.”

The assault took place on a day BJP president Nitin Nabin was in Bengal and told a rally in Kolkata that chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had ended extortion in the state.