Kolkata: A young police officer was shot at while another was beaten up at two separate places in South 24 Parganas on Monday when they tried to stop violence during the filing of nomination papers by the candidates for the panchayat elections in the state.
In the morning, a group of BJP candidates went to the block development office number 1 at Mograhat area in Usti to submit their nomination papers. Suddenly a group of Trinamul Congress workers blocked their way and attacked them. A street fight unfolded between the two sides.
Cops of the Usti police station rushed to the spot. They, however, faced attack by the fighting groups who hurled bricks on them. One of them opened fire soon.
Sub-inspector of the Usti police station, Rafique Jamal suffered bullet injuries on his left hand. He was rushed to Diamond Harbour Hospital where he was treated. Later, a strong contingent of police force was deployed in the area. At Baruipur another police official came under attack allegedly by the Trinamul workers near the sub-division office in the afternoon.
Lakshminarayan Biswas, who is posted as the officer-in-charge at the special operations group of the Baruipur police district, was thrown on the road and was assaulted. He had gone to the spot after getting complaints from the BJP workers who alleged that the ruling party activists were not allowing them to file their nominations. When Mr Biswas intervened, he was targeted by the ruling party workers. Five persons were later arrested by the police.
