A teacher was on Monday afternoon allegedly abducted from near his school to a secluded place and assaulted with sticks by a group of people.
Speaking to reporters, Pradip Kar, a primary teacher at Mariamnagar High School on the outskirts of Agartala, said he was standing in front of the school during recess time when five or six youths called him to a nearby tea shop and started raining blows on him.
“They threatened to kill me for filing a case against them. They threw punches at me, forced me onto a motorcycle, took me to a secluded place, beat me up with sticks and left me there,” Kar said. “There were many people including teachers near the teashop. They did not come to my rescue,” the schoolteacher added.
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The schoolteacher named four of the attackers and claimed they were BJP activists. He said he had been assaulted thrice earlier, after which he complained to the police. The latest attack was provoked by the complaint, according to him. The teacher said the attackers also snatched away his wallet which had Rs 7,000 in it. However, he has not filed a police complaint as he is said to be away at the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital for treatment.
BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya said his party strongly opposed any sort of violence.“If there was any assault, police should take proper action at the earliest. But being a schoolteacher, how can he be involved in politics? He is heard saying he participates in political activities. It should be investigated,” Bhattacharya said.
Kar said that assaults on opposition political activists had intensified since the BJP won four states including Uttar Pradesh in recent polls.
The opposition CPM has also accused the saffron party’s workers of stepping up violence on opposition activists and party offices. In a letter to Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, the CPM state chief said that at least 39 incidents of arson and other attacks on party offices occurred in five subdivisions across the state till March 11 morning—22 of them in West Tripura’s Sadar subdivision.