Trinamool MP says party will ‘right wrongs’ over links to mob violence

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said the party would “rectify the mistakes of the past” after links emerged between party leaders and Jayant Singh, the accused of street violence.

With senior Trinamool leader and legislator Madan Mitra by his side, Mr Roy, the party’s MP from Dum Dum, told the media that party workers will not maintain any ties with real estate developers and anti-social elements.

“Whatever has happened is wrong and we will correct it. We will correct the mistakes we have made in the past and they will not be repeated,” Roy said after a meeting in Kamarhati.

Mr Singh is a Trinamool worker in Ariadaha area of ​​Kamarhati municipality in Kolkata and is the prime accused in a mob violence case. A video showing a college student and his mother being assaulted by Mr Singh in Ariadaha had gone viral earlier this month.

Mr Mitra represents the Kamarhati Assembly constituency, which falls under the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat. Recently, Trinamool leaders had alleged that they received death threats over the phone after Mr Singh’s arrest.

Commenting on the controversial issue of Mr Singh’s palatial mansion, Mr Roy said: “There are legal ways to demolish a house. The municipality has taken initial steps.”

Roy told the media that Singh had also been arrested earlier and had been in police custody for one and a half months. “I told the police that this time Jayant Singh should be given the toughest sentence,” he added.

In a related development, police arrested Abhijit Mondal alias Rana and three others in connection with the alleged assault on a builder in north Kolkata. The builder had accused local Trinamool workers associated with lawmaker Atin Ghosh of attacking him. The lawmaker has denied the allegations.