President Pranab's son assaulted in Tripura: Congress

Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary and Member of Legislative Assembly Subal Bhowmick on Monday alleged that a group of Congress activists had assaulted Abhijit Mukherjee, a Congress MLA from West Bengal and son of President Pranab Mukherjee, on Thursday at Bamutia, nearly 35 km from Agartala.

Addressing a press conference, Bhowmick said Mukherjee had gone to Kalibazar in Bamutia area on September 6 to inaugurate a library in the name of Tripura's first Chief Minister Sachindra Lal Sinha and on his return, a group of Congress supporters led by Balai Goswami, also a general secretary of TPCC, stopped  Mukherjee's car and with folded hands, requested him to visit the Congress office on the roadside.

"s soon as he got down from the vehicle, the Congress supporters pulled him by his collar and dragged him inside the Congress office on the roadside and physically assaulted him. I was accompanying Mukherjee but could not resist them because they outnumbered us," he said.

"All these things had happened before my eyes and I remained a silent witness of the incident," Bhowmick told a press conference.

He said, "Goswami and his supporters were asking Mukherjee about why he came to Tripura without asking TPCC president Sudip Roy Burman."

Bhowmick said he has informed All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi on September 7 and demanded a full fledged inquiry into the incident, an exemplary punishment and immediate expulsion of the erring leaders from the party.

Mukherjee came to Agartala on September 6 to deliver a lecture on the occasion of the 105th birth centenary of the first chief minister of Tripura, Sachindra Lal Singha, and on the same evening went to Kalibazar to inaugurate the library.

Bhowmick said, "When the incident took place and the incident was published in few local newspapers next day, Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee president Sudip Roy Burman gave a statement on September 8 that nothing had happened like this. When I was the eye-witness of the incident, he did not bother to ask me what happened on the day".

Asked if he demanded the resignation of the TPCC president, Bhowmick said, "I demanded an inquiry and exemplary punishment according to the inquiry report. But Goswami repeatedly asked why Mukherjee came to Tripura without asking Roy Burman."

He said he had called this press conference because his "conscience" drove him to make it public and he was ready to face any eventuality.