West Bengal: BJP Leader Arrested For Staging His Own Daughter's Kidnapping

In a shocking twist of tale, the Bengal police have arrested a BJP leader of Birbhum district in connection to his daughter’s kidnap case. Suprabhat Batyabyala, the local BJP leader along with two others, was arrested on February 17, reported NDTV. On February 14, the Batyabyala’s daughter, Prathama Batabyal, 23, was allegedly abducted at gunpoint from her residence by a gang, said a senior police official according to The Times Of India report. However, his daughter was rescued from Uttar Dinajpur district on Sunday morning.

The Uttar Dinajpur police and the Birbhum police team in a joint operation tracked the 23-year-old woman to Dalkhola railway station area on February 17 morning. It turned out that Prathama’s kidnapping was staged by her father himself. Along with Batyabyala, Raju Sarkar, and Dipankar Mondal were arrested after the preliminary investigation conducted by the cops.

What did the cop say?

Tanmay Sarkar, additional superintendent of police, Birbhum said that it was not a case of abduction. He also added that the team rescued the daughter from Dalkhola area in Malda district. He further mentioned that the father had met with his two associates days before the staged abduction to finalise the plan. Incidentally, after Prathama’s “kidnapping”, supporters of Batyabyala chased down local Trinamool Congress MLA Manirul Islam. As reported by Business Standard, BJP activists had blocked the Suri-Katwa road and tyres were burnt. Islam was forced to take shelter in Labhpur police station, which was then gheraoed by at least a hundred of Batyabyala’s supporters. The mob reportedly pelted stones at the police station, following which police carried out baton charge to control the situation. In this regard, at least 12 people were arrested and cases against 151 people were booked.

Sarkar further said that the police were looking for Batyabyala in connection with a case. He said based on the information gathered by questioning the arrested, the police believe the kidnapping was performed to divert police’s attention from him, reported the Hindustan Times. Reportedly, Trinamool Congress’s Birbhum district committee president Anubrata Mondal has alleged that Islam, too, was also complicit in the conspiracy.

Shyam Singh, Birbhum Superintendent of Police, said that there are two possible reasons behind the kidnap. He hinted that the reason behind such an act could be a family problem or to gain political mileage. He further said that we are investigating the three to get to know the root cause.

Who is Suprabhat Batyabyala?

Suprabhat, before joining the BJP was a member of TMC five months back. Earlier to that, Suprabhat was a district committee member of the CPI(M). According to Sujit Batyabal, Suprabhat’s brother, five miscreants entered into the house around 8 pm on February 14 after getting to know that Suprabhat was not home. He further added that the miscreants confined the family members in a room and then locked it from outside. Afterwards, they dragged his niece out and forced her into a car.

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